Singapore Recreation Club faces pushback in rejuvenation efforts to attract younger people

SINGAPORE – Efforts by the Singapore Recreation Club (SRC) to revamp its nearly 30-year-old building and attract younger members have been met with pushback from existing ones.

While leaders of the 142-year-old club at the Padang hope to draw new blood by moving away from “old, passe sports”, some older members have characterised this strategy as pandering to the younger crowd.

The latest flashpoint arises from a proposal to move the club’s billiards room from the second floor to basement two, in order to make space for a co-working area.

This redevelopment will incur a land betterment charge – a tax to enhance the use of a site – of $4.9 million from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA).

Some 120 members have signed a petition protesting against the club’s call to vote on the move, arguing that the proposal by the management committee was drawn up without consulting members sufficiently, and imposes a financial burden on them.

Several members also told The Straits Times they were displeased that one of Singapore’s oldest sporting clubs is shifting its focus from “legacy” sports and pivoting towards “trendy social activities” with six new pickleball courts, upgraded bars, new lounges and the new co-working space.

At present, the vast majority of the club’s 6,917 members are aged above 55.

On Oct 18, members are expected to vote on whether to pay the land betterment charge to redevelop basement two in order to house the billiards room and an administrative office.

To create a bigger space, the committee has proposed extending the area into the carpark.

If this resolution is not passed, members will vote on whether to have the billiards room remain where it is – albeit with less than half of its existing space – with a co-working space occupying the rest of the area, or have the entire area allocated to co-working as initially planned.

Mr Sean Mathews, 55, and Mr Wilson Mu, 50, representatives of the club’s billiards group committee, sent a legal letter to the club in September after the group was asked to vacate its premises so that renovations for the co-working space could start.

The letter sought for the billiards room to be kept as a “core feature” of the club’s transformation plan and for the club to follow through with the initial agreement to construct the billiards room in basement two.

Mr Mu and Mr Mathews said they were told that SRC’s priority is to focus on trending activities, such as co-working and pickleball, to generate revenue and attract a younger demographic.

The members added that the games control board chairman, Mr Thomas Tay, had asked the group to play at a separate venue outside the club, with the club subsidising one session per week.

Mr Mu and Mr Mathews said: “The billiards section has more than 50 players who will be affected, even after we paid to fund the transformation plan, because SRC wants to pander to younger people.”

SRC president Chang Yeh Hong, 65, said the management committee is not keen on paying the land betterment charge, and has offered to pay for the billiards group to play elsewhere.

“We have to think out of the box and propose to them to play outside because of this roadblock that we face. It’s just not worth paying the $4.9 million,” he said, noting that the golf and cricket groups currently play at external facilities.

In 2024, members were asked to each pay a $3,000 fee for

a $16.6 million transformation plan

, comprising a revamp of the building’s facade and upgraded facilities, among other initiatives.

In 2022, each member had also paid $2,500 – for a total of $11.48 million – to defray a $17.7 million fee to the SLA for the club

to renew its lease at the Padang

till 2052. The remaining $6.23 million came from the club’s reserves.

Another contentious issue is the dissolution of the club’s cricket group to get more younger players on board.

Mr Paul Joseph, 60, who was a member of the cricket group, said it came as a shock when the team was told in August to disband after their last game for the 2024-2025 season.

In a letter seen by ST, Mr Tay, the games control board chairman, noted that of the group’s 30 ordinary members, 16 are aged between 45 and 64, and 11 are over the age of 65, which means “90 per cent of the section would be considered too senior to play cricket competitively”.

Adding that the group won 38 per cent of the 140 games it played over the past five years, he said: “If we are serious about achieving better results for the club, there must be a concerted plan to rebuild our playing squad and revamp the entire approach.”

Mr Joseph, who has been an SRC member since 1999, said this decision was made without consulting members, and that it was an unfair move given that the group had won titles every year.

Other groups that have closed in the past include those for netball, rugby, darts and chess, while the hockey group is not active.

Mr V.K. Chelvan, 79, a former national coach who was part of SRC’s hockey group, said he was disappointed when the sport “died down” around 2023.

“Hockey is a core sport for SRC, we were very successful and won many tournaments. The management committee should put more effort into reviving the sport,” said Mr Chelvan, who has been an SRC member since 1964.

Asked about the changes to these sports groups, Mr Chang said the club’s vision is to rejuvenate and bring in younger members to represent the club.

“We need to move away from all our old, passe sports and concentrate on pickleball, for example, which brought in 355 new ordinary members,” he said. Six new pickleball courts were built at the end of 2024.

Mr Chang said he is aiming for younger working professionals and families to eventually account for two-thirds of the club’s members.

He added that the club recently started selling new ordinary memberships at a one-off price of $15,000. Ordinary members also have to pay a monthly subscription fee of $85.

In 2021, when the club was planning for its lease renewal, the membership price in the resale market was about $5,000.

Said Mr Chang: “Since we launched the transformation plan, there’s been an increase in demand because they believe in the transformation and can see the changes we’re making to the club, so they’re willing to pay for it.”