21 YEARS 'FIRST RUGBY STADIUM' WOES

By Tony Mariadass

The state of Malaysian sports can best be summed with the ‘first rugby stadium’ in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, promised in February, 2010, by then Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek who revealed there were plans to build a RM35 million rugby stadium, has still to become a reality.

The Sabah Sukma Stadium when work was about to begin two years ago

Now locked and abandoned

Present state and abandoned

Ten years later in 2019, after change of two sports ministers, the stadium was in construction after a RM10 million was released by the Federal Government.

And now 11 years later (2021), after change of Federal government a few times, the site at Padang Rugby Sukma Likas Sports Complex, 2 ½ Mile Tuaran Road in Kota Kinabalu, is a sore sight and an abandoned project after a promise to build the Stadium was made!

In 2015, then Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, had even dropped by at the site to show his support for the stadium.

Meanwhile in March 2019, another then Sports Minister Sport Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman came out to say the government has agreed to build a dedicated rugby stadium, this time, initially, the stadium planned to be built in Putrajaya but it was then changed to the Kuala Lumpur Sports City (KLSC) in Bukit Jalil. However, it was moved back to Putrajaya.

“After years of delay in regard to building a national rugby stadium, the government has finally agreed to approve an allocation of RM17 million to the Sports Ministry for this cause," Syed Saddiq has said in a media statement then.

"The stadium will be built in Precint 14, Putrajaya on 16 acres (of land). Physical work at the site is expected to begin in November.

"This allocation will cover the construction of two rugby fields, built in accordance with tournament specifications, with floodlights rated at 1,200 lux, changing room and other facilities.”

To top it all it was hailed as the “first rugby stadium” in the country! What happened to the Stadium in rugby where work had begun in 2010?

Has the Malaysia Rugby (MR) got their stadium in Putra Jaya? Abandoned too?

As for the Stadium in Kota Kinabalu, a source in Sabah said that the site belongs to the Sabah Sports Board, but funding for the building of the Stadium is from the Federal government.

“While an initial funding of RM10 million was given and work started but all that has stopped. Work has stopped at the stadium and the contractor terminated.

“Need to check with the current sports minister on the status,” the source said.