The construction of the National Stadium of Singapore started in 1966 and was completed in 1973. Situated in Kallang, the 55,000-capacity stadium has hosted three Southeast Asian Games (1973, 83, 93) and 18 National Day Parades.
On 21st July 1973, former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew conducted the official opening of the National Stadium.
Perhaps the greatest memories of the National Stadium come from the days of the Malaysian Cup, where Singapore participated and won the tournament three times in 1977, 80 and 94. The hardcore football fans, packed fully into the stadium and sat closely to each other on the concrete slab seating, would never forget the famous Kallang Roar as well as the Mexican Wave that circled round the stadium to cheer for the home team.
Cheers, chants and drums once filled the stadium with emotions running high.
“Referee kayu!!” or “Referee bodoh (stupid)!!” One often could hear the fans’ blasting of the referee whenever mistakes were made.
Famous football clubs such as Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle United and Celtic once played their friendlies here.
Beside sports, National Stadium had also hosted the concerts of superstars such as Michael Jackson, Elton John, Mariah Carey, Steve Wonder and Zhang Hui Mei.
At the end of June 2007, the National Stadium was closed officially, bring down the curtains of its glittering 44-year history. However, the stadium continued to host the East Asian, Asean and World Cup qualifying games until 2010.
The stadium started its demolition in September 2010. By November, two of its four iconic flood lights were removed and half of its structure torn down.
Good bye Kallang National Stadium!
Published: 14 November 2010
The stadium was totally flatten by the New Year of 2011, but a valuable time capsule buried on 23 February 1970, containing newspaper articles, coins and dollar notes, books and sport memorabilia, is still missing and cannot be found. A $50,000 reward is still up for grab for anyone who finds it.
Updated: 19 January 2011
Kallang Park is not what it was in the 1960s. There was no National Stadium, theatre, Oasis, leisure park etc. The park was a big open area with facilites for little children to play.There were swings, merry-go-round, slides, sea-saws, tunnels for hide seek, sand pit, etc. A trade exhibition once held there.
See Kallang Park 1960s at http://pchew-nostalgia.blogspot.com
Hey, the McDonalds at Marine Cove aka East Coast Park is closing next month! Should feature it and visit it before it closes.
Thanks for the update…
The new landlord National Parks Board (NParks) has taken over that area from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), and the 30-year-old McDonald’s outlet, as well as the other tenants there, will have to end their businesses.
Oh my, I had great memories of the Marine Cove McDonald’s
Let me see… I went for Sea Games closing ceremony 94 where my bro particpate. I watched MJ concert ther. I watched a National Day Parde with my then boyfriend. And recently the last we watched was Singapore VS Liverpool match. Great times!
My first visit to the National Stadium was for the opening ceremony of the 1973 SEAP Games (pre-cursor to the SEA Games). As I grew up, my fondest memories of the place was way back in the 80′s when I used to workout very frequently at the rusty old stinky gym with Tan Howe Liang as “caretaker”. It was cheap and you could spend the whole day working out for the price of $1.50!! My last visit to the stadium was when they converted the “open-air “gym to an air-conditioned one… So sad another national gem demolished for the sake of progress..