Today, I went for the National Stadium Group Tour in the afternoon @ 2.30pm, which was organized by the Singapore Sports Council. This session was actually the last visit (last session) to the national stadium just before the closing ceremony is to be conducted on Saturday, 30 June 2007.
This tour was interesting as we were guided along by a tour guide explaining the history of the stadium and the main amenities in the vicinity of the stadium with a thorough walkthrough of the stadium. This is considered one of the last chances to take photography of the stadium and visit to the some of the restricted areas, just before this 34 year old stadium (officially opened on 21 July 1973) is to the demolished by end of this year to make way for the new Sports Hubs to be completed by year 2011.
The tour started off by visiting the usual VIP grandstand seats and also the VIP lounge at the West gate, which normally we don’t get a chance to sit there or enter. Haha. Next we proceed up to the media box (where music and audio are played) just on top of the grandstand seats, by using the spiral staircase. Following that, the next stop is the Sport Museum just at the main entrance of the West gate whereby we witnessed the exhibits, trophies, medals of the past sportsmen (eg. Mr. Ang Peng Siong, Canagasabai Kunalan, Fandi Admad) who had made great contributions in Singapore Sports history.
After that, we proceeded along the walkway where the ticketing counters used to be and then advanced into the stadium again and climbed to the top of the stadium at the East gate to have a last look at the Cauldron where the flame of the Olympic game was once lighted. From there we walked to 1 of the 4 floodlight towers to figure out how was it like inside the tower, although we were not allowed to climb to the top. For your info, each floodlight tower is about 75m high (about 30 to 40 storey tall), having 75 units of light bulbs each.
Subsequently, we entered the biomechanics and physiotherapy lab and also the National Athletes Gyms where we don’t actually have a chance to visit at all in the past. Just before we proceed on to the last stop, we have a quick peep of some Australian soccer players having their training just before they battle our “lions” on Saturday evening. Haha.Lastly, we proceeded back again to the West gate to our last stop at the National Stadium & Kallang area exhibition before the whole tour ended. Overall, the 2 hours stadium tour was an interesting and fruitful one to all whom attended, as I got to learn something about the history of the stadium and capture some snapshots of the place. 3 cheers to the National Stadium. Haha Ü
Anyway, I will be back to the National Stadium again to witness the last soccer match between Singapore and Australian Team + mini game with Malaysia and also the closing ceremony of the stadium this coming Saturday evening with my friends. Haha.
East Gate Extrance
East Gate Normal Gallery View
West Gate Grandstand Gallery View
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