10 million sponsor but StarHub gets shafted by Sports Hub

What was supposed to be an event to bring people of all walks of life together and celebrate the World Cup has now turned into a nightmare for one of the Singapore Sports Hub's founding partners.

On Wednesday, TOC can reveal that despite being a major sponsor of the Sports Hub, StarHub will not likely be the Sports Hub's partner for its World Cup screening parties to be held during the World Cup period.

That honour, it appears, has been bestowed on its main competitor SingTel.

A Singapore Sports Hub source close to TOC said that the proposed partnership between Sports Hub and SingTel is a major slap in the face for StarHub, which has committed a significant budget to being a founding partner of the much-maligned Sports Hub.

StarHub's commitment is said to be worth about $10 million over seven years.

The sponsorship agreement between the Singapore Sports Hub and StarHub was announced in 2014 before the opening of the Singapore Sports Hub.

To date, there has been less than a handful of major events at the National Stadium in 2018 which have given sponsors its value worth.

Near empty stadiums for Singapore Premier League matches do not account for much value for sponsors like StarHub, OCBC and Great Eastern, Canon and Tiger Beer which are all among a handful of founding partners.

When the winning consortium of the Sports Hub project was announced by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan in 2008, it was stated that the consortium led by Dragages was chosen "because we felt that they were strongest in the offering of a comprehensive sporting calendar. For instance, they guaranteed 90 event days in the stadium, and at least 46 event days – sports event days – at the Singapore Indoor Stadium."

For the National Stadium, there has not been an average of 15 events a year at the National Stadium, a far cry from what the 90 which were promised.

TOC has reached out to StarHub's Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer Jeannie Ong for a comment.

We have also sent queries to Sports Hub over the matter to clarify its decision on using SingTel as a partner as opposed to its very own founding partner StarHub.

A commercial partnerships expert TOC spoke to said that while the Sports Hub may have the contractual right to have its own partner for an event outside of the existing contractual agreement, it is 'commercial harakiri' for the venue owner to bring in a direct competitor to one of its own founding partners.

"This move by Sports Hub would only make other potential major partners think twice when it comes to renewals, as they can have a possible back door to getting brand mileage at the venue."

For the World Cup 2018, all three broadcasters - StarHub, SingTel and MediaCorp - have rights to broadcast the event.

This entry was posted in Business, Sports.

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