National Stadium Singapore

The National Stadium in Singapore is part of the Sports Hub and opened in June 2014, replacing the old National Stadium, better known as Kallang Stadium.

The old place was opened in July 1973 with a capacity of 55,000. It held many major events over the years, including the Southeast Asian Games, National Day Parades, and many major concerts featuring the likes of Davis Bowie, Bon Jovi, Michael Jackson, and Elton John, as well as a visit from Pope John Paul II.

However, it was football that the stadium was most famous for. The Singapore national team played their matches there, as well as it staging the Singapore Cup Final from 1996 until its closure. Singapore Lions, who played in the Malaysian Premier League from 1921 to 1994, won the Malaysian Cup on many occasions, with the legendary ‘Kallang Roar’ greeting the home side.

The ASEAN Football Championship in 2007 was the last major event held at the stadium before its official closure in June 2007. However, yet another eleven matches were held at Kallng; the last on the 6th January 2010 as Iran defeated Singapore 3-1 in an Asian Cup qualifier.

Demolition took place in 2010 and 2011, while major events were moved to a temporary stadium at the Marine Bay Floating Platform. Work on the new stadium was delayed from its original 2008 starting date because of the financial crisis of the time. The stadium forms just part of the Hub. 

It also includes the Aquatic Centre, the multi-purpose OCBC Arena, the Singapore Sports Museum, the Sports Hub library, the Kallang Wave shopping mall and the current Singapore Indoor Stadium, as well as a Water Sports Centre at the adjacent Kallang Basin.

The old National Stadium

The stadium has been constructed in such a way that it can stage rectangular sports such as football or rugby as well as cricket, and accommodate an athletics track thanks to the retractable seating in the lower tier. From a distance, the stadium looks like a huge dome, with its fully retractable roof, which takes twenty-five minutes to open. 

At its time of completion, it was the largest dome structure in the world. All appeared perfect apart from one vital ingredient. The playing surface was awful and led to events being moved to other venues. The pitch simply fell apart during a rugby event and during the Brazil v Italy friendly football international.

My visit

Thursday 29th October 2014

My free bus tour as part of my three-day tourist pass was done. Originally, I’d intended to stay out and enjoy a Singapore Sling at Raffles Hotel. The lack of pricing on their website was one deterrent, added to the fact that I was not at my most hygienic because of the heat and humidity.

Instead, I decided to eat in Chinatown before taking an SMRT train to Stadium station, which was more or less under the main arena. Signs pointed to all the different facilities around the Hub. I followed the steps to the reception office in the hope of entering the stadium.

My first view had been a couple of days earlier when alighting from the train at Kallang. It looked like something that had landed from outer space. Despite my research, I hadn’t realised that it was so close to my hotel. I simply had to take a closer look. Unfortunately, there were no stadium tours until the weekend. 

Instead, I wandered right round the perimeter, grabbing a look through the gates and taking photos wherever I could. The entrances were all well above pitch level. After a complete lap, I took the covered walkway to the junction with Mountbatten Road, where I crossed the busy road by footbridge and headed home for a nap and a shower before that evening’s match activities.