Senior staff quit Singapore Sports Hub

The departure of two members of the management team at the Singapore Sports Hub, with Legal Director Maud Brotons and Tan Ai Sim, Head of Human Resources, resigning from Sports Hub Pte Ltd (SHPL) means that seven senior staff members have departed the organisation in the last six months.

Singapore newspaper Today has reported that Frenchwoman Brotons - who joined SHPL in August 2011 and handled all legal issues related to the operation of the Private Public Partnership project - handed in her resignation last month, while Tan has quit after only two months in the job.

Responding to questions on the departures, SHPL Chief Executive Manu Sawhney released a statement that explained "there have been some departures within SHPL over the last months, but all of these have happened in the normal course of business - e.g. people leaving due to personal circumstances, or to pursue other interests or opportunities."

Sawhney, who joined SHPL last September as Chief Executive-designate, before taking over from founding Chief Executive Philippe Collin-Delavaud in December, added "my sole objective is to ensure Sports Hub is configured in all respects to be best in class so it can realise its ambitions.”

He went on to state “I will not be making any comments on specific individuals on or off the record, in line with our policy not to comment on such internal matters.”

The S$1.33 billion facility has been hit by a spate of resignations in recent months. Last December, the consortium confirmed that Mark Collins and Daphne Letourmel, Global Spectrum’s Managing Director and Director of Contracts and Compliance, were “stepping aside” from their roles.

(Global Spectrum Pico is one of four equity partners in the Sports Hub consortium, which had won the contract from the Singapore Government in 2007 to finance, build and operate the precinct over a 25-year period, with the public-private-partnership project touted as the largest in the world. The other partners are InfraRed Capital Partners, Dragages Singapore, and DTZ Facilities & Engineering (S) Limited.)

In a separate move, SHPL’s Strategic Marketing and Partnerships Director Poh Yu Khing, and Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Stakeholder Management, Jose Raymond, left the company.

Managing Director of SHPL’s facilities management firm DTZ, Eric Tan, had also stepped down in August.

Since its opening in June 2014, the Sports Hub has run into a number of issues. These include problems with the National Stadium’s grass pitch, a roof leak during a concert, and event organisers complaining about the high cost of hosting sports events at the 55,000-seat stadium.

Two events – the Asia Masters Athletics Championships and the Merlion Cup football quadrangular – have had to seek alternative venues due high costs of renting the facility, and other issues.

Media rights company MP & Silva decided not to stage the Merlion Cup at the National Stadium after failing to come to agreement with the Sports Hub over a force majure clause in the contract. Prior to that, both organisations could not agree on the request for upfront payment of rental costs, believed to be about S$250,000.

Singapore Athletics have decided to seek another venue for the Asia Masters Championships after being told of a $600,000 bill to convert the stadium from football to athletics mode, as well as other variable costs.

Sawhney had said in an interview with Today last month that the consortium would learn from its mistakes and work on winning Singaporeans over.

Sawhney explained an ultimate goal to make the Sports Hub an integrated hub for sports, entertainment and lifestyle.

However, the Sports Hub's venues are plagued by a lack of content, relying on special events and not having an anchor tenant in the National Stadium. Other attractions and outlets with a lack of casual visits while, almost two years after opening, the OCBC Aquatic Centre has yet to introduce a learn-to-swim program.

Images: The Singapore Sports Hub and National Stadium by night (top) and instructions to patrons at the National Stadium (below).

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