The ‘Wembley’ of the region: The Kallang to host more blockbuster events, activities for S’poreans

SINGAPORE – The Kallang aspires to be one of Singapore’s great calling cards to the world, akin to London’s Wimbledon for tennis and Wembley for football and live music.

“These names do their work before even a single ticket is sold, and that is the kind of resonance we are building,” said The Kallang Group chairman Keith Magnus, about half a year after the precinct’s rebranding from being known as the Singapore Sports Hub.

The 55,000-seat National Stadium and OCBC Aquatic Centre in the precinct have hosted several events in recent years that have put it on the map, such as Taylor Swift’s sold-out run of six Singapore-exclusive shows, the first World Aquatics Championships staged in South-east Asia and even the first papal visit to the Republic in nearly four decades.

To continue this momentum, a “blockbuster month for mega concerts” is on the cards in the second half of the year.

Even as marquee events are becoming a mainstay, Mr Magnus told The Straits Times in an interview on May 11 that Singaporeans should also have the opportunity to be a part of the activities.

Later in 2026, The Kallang Foundation will be launched to provide access for underprivileged communities to experience events, he said.

It will offer scholarships to create a talent pipeline for The Kallang and its various arms, including sports management, event production and hospitality.

The team is also working to grow brand recognition among Singaporeans.

While the Singapore Sports Hub was an appropriate name when the precinct was first conceived, constructed and officially launched in 2015, the new management realised that it had outgrown its name, said Mr Magnus.

The change in name also reflects a strategic shift from a venue-for-hire to becoming Asia’s premier sports, entertainment and lifestyle destination, he added.

The Kallang Group, formerly known as Kallang Alive Sport Management, took over the management of the precinct from the Sports Hub Pte Ltd (SHPL) consortium in 2022.

The private consortium had been running the $1.33 billion facility since it opened in 2014.

“This is where the Kallang Roar and the Kallang Wave were invented and created,” said Mr Magnus.

“It was important to go back to the history of why the (name) Kallang was so emotionally part of Singaporeans’ lives, and to be able to create that again is going to be relevant and powerful.”

Later in 2026, the National Stadium will host the National Day Parade (NDP) for the first time since 2016. The former National Stadium had hosted many parades and held up to 60,000 spectators before it closed in 2007.

Almost three months of the stadium’s schedule have been earmarked for the parade and its rehearsals and preview shows, Mr Magnus said.

But The Kallang has not seen it as an excuse to have a soft 2026.

Asked if programming had to be moved because of the NDP, he said: “We are entrepreneurial, we have relationships, we have trust, and that allows us to have a dialogue that is often persuasive and effective.”

The calendar will be packed again in the months after, he said.

In end-September, American rapper-singer Post Malone will stage his first full-scale solo headline show here, while Canadian pop superstar The Weeknd brings his After Hours Til Dawn global tour to the National Stadium for two nights in October.

“We have a slew of surprises coming up and artistes who have never performed here before,” he said, adding that events would be at the pace of one mega concert a week during that period.

“But at the same time, we also believe that this precinct must belong to every Singaporean,” said Mr Magnus.

Under the Kallang Alive Masterplan, the precinct is slated to be the home of Team Singapore, with the national training centres of key sports to be located under one roof there. It will also house the new Singapore Sports School and new sports science and sports medicine facilities.

Kallang Wave Mall, which will undergo a revamp from May 2026, will feature the tallest indoor climbing wall in South-east Asia, padel courts on its rooftop and alfresco dining, among other upgrades.

“It’s all about making memories for Singaporeans, and having The Kallang as a rallying point for the nation,” said Mr Magnus.

Infrastructural upgrades for the precinct, including an all-new 18,000-seat Indoor Arena, are also on the way.

The arena will replace the 12,000-capacity Singapore Indoor Stadium, which is already booked out for the next two years.

Mr Magnus also hopes that more activity at The Kallang will continue to boost Singapore’s economy.

The global live events sector is projected to hit US$2 trillion (S$2.56 trillion) by 2030 and grow at 16 per cent annually, according to the World Economic Forum. In the Asia-Pacific region, two-thirds of travellers are willing to travel specifically for concerts and live experiences.

“In my view, live sport and live entertainment is on a multi-year, potentially multi-decade bull run, and The Kallang matters because every major event that we host, that we curate, every deal that we do, ignites a ripple effect across Singapore’s economy,” he said.

Lady Gaga’s run of four Singapore-exclusive concerts in May 2025 raked in an estimated $100 million to $150 million in tourism receipts. In 2024, Taylor Swift’s and Coldplay’s concerts brought in an estimated $350 million to $500 million.

These have had knock-on effects on the economy, with hotels and food and beverage establishments seeing brisk business when a multi-day headline concert rolls into town.

Since the Government’s takeover of the Sports Hub in December 2022, the precinct has seen more than 4,000 sport, entertainment, lifestyle and community event days in total, hosting close to 10 million visitors in three years.

Mr Magnus hinted that the expertise and skills cultivated in running The Kallang are transferable beyond the 90ha precinct – both within Singapore and beyond its shores.

“We are also creating our own (event) IP and our own programming,” he said, referring to event intellectual property, or ownership of an event’s concept or brand. “I think that’s very powerful... as we accelerate, there is no reason why we should not be asked or engaged to manage other places nationally or internationally.”