Leaky Indoor Stadium roof adds to Sports Hubs woes

SINGAPORE: Already hit by lighting issues that drew complaints on Tuesday (Oct 21) from tennis players at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals, the Singapore Indoor Stadium (SIS) on Wednesday found itself dealing with a roof leak as well.

An afternoon downpour caused water to drip onto the court at the SIS which is part of the S$1.33 billion Sports Hub at Kallang as the first womens doubles quarter-final match between Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, and the Russian-Australian pairing of Alla Kudryavtseva and Anastasia Rodionova, got under way at 1.30pm.

Towels had to be placed on two separate spots on court in the section closer to the South entrance in between games during the second set, with a ball kid also activated to mop up the water during the match. Play was not disrupted, with the leak appearing to stop as the match progressed.

SportsHub Pte Ltd (SHPL) was expected to issue a statement in consultation with Sport Singapore on Wednesday, but was unable to respond by press time last night.

The Indoor Stadium was on Tuesday hit by complaints from top players Caroline Wozniacki and Maria Sharapova that certain lights were turning on and off during their match.

Wednesdays roof leak was yet another blow for the billion-dollar Sports Hub, with pitch issues at the National Stadium forcing SHPL to cancel a rugby friendly between the Asia Pacific Dragons and Maori All Blacks scheduled for Nov 15, while the Nov 8 Jay Chou concert was postponed to Dec 27 to allow the pitch more time to recover for next months ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup.

This is not the first time that the Indoor Stadium which was opened in December 1989 has suffered a roof leak. At the badminton Singapore Open in 2010, rainwater seeping through the roof onto Court 2 caused a three-hour backlog of matches, forcing the tournament referee to reschedule 10 matches to the next day.

In July 2012, the stadium was shut for more than three months to allow for a series of renovations that included work on its interior roof. But the problem persisted, recurring in April, again during badmintons Singapore Open when play was halted for nearly an hour due to rainwater dripping onto the court.

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Leaky Indoor Stadium roof adds to Sports Hubs woes