‘Sack the Minister!’ – Netizens express anger over Sports Hub’s continuing woes

Yahoo news quoting the sociopolitical website The Online Citizen reported that at least seven members have left the Sports Hub in recent weeks.

It pointed out that the more high-profile departures are those of Rob Abernethy, deputy managing director at Global Spectrum; Jason Hrick, his acting managing director; Eugene Lee, Sports Hub director of marketing and communication; Daniel Teo, director of facility management at Cushman & Wakefield.

Yahoo said: “Global Spectrum and Cushman & Wakefield are two of the four partners in the private sector Sports Hub consortium. The other two are InfraRed Capital Partners and Dragages Singapore. This consortium has a 25-year deal with Sport Singapore to design, build, finance and operate the Sports Hub under a Public-Private-Partnership, according to its website.

In addition to aforementioned resignations, others include those of Sports Hub’s communications manager Sam Eatwell, social media and marketing manager Daphne Chew and creative manager Hendra Chong.

These departures follow a first wave of resignations last December, which included Global Spectrum’s managing director Mark Collins and director of contracts and compliance Daphne Letournel, as well as Sports Hub senior director of corporate communications and stakeholder management, Jose Raymond.”

Netizens have not responded kindly to the news of a spate of resignations which was once hailed as a pinnacle of private-public partnerships.

Commenter on the Yahoo article Steven tan said: “Stop putting Foreigners in top positions to manage our top Facilities. They are not that good. We Singaporeans are not that bad. We can run the show ourselves.”

Oh Peh Som questioned the huge payment Sports Hub pays for its artificial grass: “When are we going to remove the roof ? Let’s not wait for another 20 years before we realise the foolhardiness that that is the only way to grow the grass cost efficiently and effectively. We are losing out too much time and money already. It is time to bite the bullet and admit the design fault.”

Lim Kopi said: “According to a TODAY report, former Sports Hub staff were not surprised that more employees are leaving as there has been a lack of communication between staff and leadership, in particular over the vision and future direction of the project, and unannounced hiring of new staff. sport-hub … a white elephant project to show case how rich is spore !!! there are no vision or direction to talk about ! very expensive structure need a lot of money to maintain to make use of this huge white elephant one have to folk out a lot of money not many events can afford to bear the cost … in fact none ! further more , spore is not a sport nation sport event unable to attract audiences it seems s-league is the only sport event in this country
therefore , sport-hub is wasting money …”

Ryan Star was particularly upset with the Sports Minister: “Sack the Minister and the people in charge of this project. There must be accountability for such a blunder, given the huge amount of tax payers money involved.”