KLSC RECORDS RM10.647 MILLION IN VENUE RENTAL UP TO OCTOBER

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 (Bernama) -- The Kuala Lumpur Sports City (KLSC) in Bukit Jalil recorded a rental collection of RM10.647 million as of October, the highest-ever collected by the national sports facility.

Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said that, of the total, KLSC collected RM2.147 million from organising 26 sports events and RM8.5 million from 54 non-sports events, including concerts.

"The rental collected based on the venues for sports events shows that the 85,000-capacity National Stadium in Bukit Jalil recorded RM1.97 million; the 13,000-capacity Axiata Arena (RM875,000); and the National Hockey Stadium, with a capacity of between 15,000 and 20,000 (RM75,000).

"For non-sports events, the National Stadium collected RM1.8 million in rental collection, Axiata Arena RM6.4 million and the National Hockey Stadium RM210,000. This shows that the most popular venue for non-sports events is the Axiata Arena,” she said during the Minister’s Question Time at Dewan Rakyat today.

She said this when replying to a question from Khoo Poay Tiong (PH-Kota Melaka), who wanted to know about the Youth and Sports Ministry's (KBS) efforts to increase the country's revenue through the hosting of concerts as well as making the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil a world-class multi-purpose facility.

Meanwhile, Hannah said that to meet the demands and needs of the concert organisers, the ministry has implemented several initiatives to improve services, such as diversifying the functions of the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil.

"Previously, the stadium was only focused on hockey competitions and training sessions, but it is now a venue chosen for concerts. For next year, the stadium has already received 26 bookings…,” she said.

She said that her ministry, together with the Malaysian Stadium Corporation (PSM) as the body managing KLSC, which was formerly known as the National Sports Complex, is preparing two eight-acre grass nurseries to be used as replacement grass under the "lay and play” concept at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil.

For example, if there is a football game soon after a concert, the "lay and play” concept will be able to optimise the usage of the National Stadium, in addition to giving the pitch time to recover through the field rotation system.

Hannah said PSM is also developing a big-scale digital booking system at the main venue to replace the manual booking system that is less transparent, with the new system set to be implemented next year.

"I have held talks with 16 companies and they have stated their intention to bring in many international artistes, including Hong Kong, Chinese, Hindi, Tamil and South Korean performers, as we have a ready market.

"I also wish to state that the Axiata Arena is fully booked for the whole of next year,” she said.

-- BERNAMA