Juara not championing the cause

02/10/1998

THE Juara Stadium at Bukit Kiara is priced beyound the reach of the
Malaysian Netball Association (MNA) to host their national championship,
or for that matter, any other low budget tournament.
MNA president Norminshah Sabirin is still in the dark about how much the
stadium managers, Merdeka Stadium Board, charge for the use of the
stadium.
"I have made repeated calls to the company but they don't seem to have
the breakdown of cost to host a tournament. But since they are the same
company who manage Stadium Negara, I think they will charge the old rate
of RM1,000 per day," said Norminshah.
A check with Merdeka Stadium Board yesterday revealed that for
tournaments with tickets, the stadium managers will not charge rental but
collect 15 per cent of the gate earnings.
"If 15 per cent the daily gate earnings is less than RM2,000, then we
will charge a flat rate of RM2,000 per day," said Ahmad Helmi, Stadium
Board's assistant manager of marketing
The national championship is a five-day event and this means that it
would cost the MNA, who don't charge for entrance, RM10,000 to host the
event.
"If the charges are too high, MNA will not use the Juara Stadium and
will look for an alternative venue. Moreover, it is not a good location to
host the championship because it is not serviced by public transport.
"Food as well as accommodation is also a problem there. We will only
incur additional costs to hold any training or championships there.
"During the Commonwealth Games, we also found out that the ventilation
is very bad and without air-conditioning, which will cost more to have,
the stadium becomes unplayable after 10am because it is stuffy.
"We would rather train at Stadium Negara right until it is demolished,
then we will look for an alternative venue."
For training, the Juara Stadium will cost RM200 per hour and if the
parking bays are full, it will cost an additional RM500 per day.
Electricity and water will be charged based by meter readings while the
scoreboard will cost RM200 per hour.
The overall budget will make it less attractive for sports associations
to utilise the venue but the Stadium Merdeka Board have plans to use it
for exhibitions and concerts which are reasonably priced.
(END)