John Davidson: Why Singapore's 'World's Best Sports City' award is a joke
The headline reached out to me and was like a punch in the face, “Singapore named world’s best sport city”.
Surely this was a mistake? A typo?
Surely the city named had to be Paris or Barcelona or Los Angeles?
No, reading through the story I saw it was no mistake. The Little Red Dot really had beaten Dusseldorf and London for the honor of the greatest sports city in the world at the International Sports Event Management Awards.
Cue the feelings of local pride and swelling of national esteem.
But in all honesty, this award is a joke. How could Singapore be selected as the world’s top sports city? This is a place that lacks a world-class sports stadium; a Wembley, Allianz Arena or Stadio Olympico.
The closest it has is the National Stadium at Kallang which is currently being torn down, and even at its best it was pretty ordinary -- 1960s design and mostly concrete slab seating.
This is a place where completion of its elite sports hub was put off year after year after year.
This is a place where its most popular golf courses are in Indonesia, across the water in Bintan. A city with very, very few professional sporting clubs and hardly any good sports fields that are open to the public.
Now sure, that is not to say that it is impossible to play or watch sport in Singapore.
The country has many basketball courts, outside gym equipment and pathways for cycling. Running is becoming very popular and it also has its far share of swimming pools.
But some of its best sport facilities are housed in school grounds, fenced off with barbwire and out of touch for the common heartlander. Or they are located in condos, like the thousands of tennis courts, out of reach for the average Singaporean.
And no, I’m not including the Youth Olympic Games, as the baby Olympics don’t count.
Part of the problem is that Singapore doesn’t really have a culture of sport. There are few elite Singaporean sports people and hardly any pathways to professional sport.
It is not part of the national DNA, bred into people when they are kids and then becoming part of the rest of their lives as in many other countries.
Food and shopping are far more popular national pastimes, so sport for many is something they catch on TV occasionally or read about in the paper.
In the past 15 years or so the government has tried to rectify this, as it has realized the powerful role sport can play in nation-building and in raising national pride -- one Olympic medal is worth a lot in terms of fostering a unique and united Singaporean identity.
Sport is also big business. And so it has pumped millions and millions into sport and in attracting sports events to Singapore. This policy is clearly working as the city now has Formula 1 and in 2011 it will host world championship events in netball and canoeing, to name just a few.
The Standard Chartered Marathon and the Barclays Singapore Open have become big successes, while the likes of OCBC Cycle continue to grow.
Excuse the pun, while Singapore has certainly lifted its sports game, compared to the Melbournes, Londons or Paris’, it’s still way behind.
So when you finally read the fine print in this story, you can actually understand Singapore was named best sports city in the world and the criteria for the honor was “the level of support and commitment made by a municipality in terms of funding and resource, legislation and planning as well as marketing and promotion.”
Translation: Kudos goes to the city who's government put up all the money and put on a good show in safe conditions.
Credit also goes to great organization and promotion for the sports event -- a word of warning to India post-Commonwealth Games -- remember to get your planning, terrorists and PR spin in order before you host your next big sports event.
So things like sports culture, history, ability, quality and passion don’t count for anything. This award is not really about what sport you have or how your city embraces it, just your abilities to be a good host. Got it.
Well, Singapore can have this pokey little award, for what it’s worth. But give me the excitement of a London football match, the Boxing Day cricket Test in Melbourne or Paris’ French Open any day.
