Singapore confident Sports Hub ready for SEA Games test

SINGAPORE - Singapore's $1 billion Sports Hub, which has been beset by problems since opening last year, will be ready to successfully stage 10 of the 36 sports at the Southeast Asian Games in June, its Chief Operating Officer said.

Oon Jin Teik and his team have come under fire after the 55,000-seat National Stadium, the centrepiece of the new facility, struggled to cope with the demands of staging different events, with a pitch that has been relayed several times failing to produce consistent grass growth.

The sandy surface led to a rugby match featuring the All Black Maori side being cancelled at the last minute, while safety concerns were raised when Brazil played a football friendly against Japan last year.

A leaking roof was also reported during a concert in December, while locals have spoken out about the grey, concrete-lined stadium's aesthetics.

Large sums have being spent to rectify the problems, with specialists brought in from around the world, and Oon is hopeful the 28th running of the biennial SEA Games from June 5-16 would be a hit.

"We want to redeem (ourselves) on every occasion and not just the SEA Games," he was quoted as saying by local media on Friday.

"We want it to continue to be functioning at every event, that's always the objective. There's a lot of work (to be done). We are confident but not complacent.

"The bigger issues that are publicly known, we are fixing them and we see the improvement there and we're also fixing the other smaller issues."