Better crowds expected at S-League matches for new season

Source

SINGAPORE - The average turnout of 957 spectators per match at the Great Eastern-Yeo's S-League last year was an all-time low, but the figures are expected to improve for the 2012 season.

S-League chief executive officer Lim Chin told Today during yesterday's announcement of leading telco StarHub and broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports as the official broadcast partners of the S-League in a one-year deal, that they are looking at working towards a target of above 2,000 to about 2,500 per match.

"We looked at the crowd figures over the years since the inception of the S-League in 1996 and felt this is a possible target for us to try to reach. It's not easy, but if the clubs put in enough effort and the S-League pools its resources together, I'm sure we can reach this target," he said.

And the partnership with StarHub and ESPN STAR Sports is one of the key initiatives of S-League Version 2.0 - a blueprint unveiled last month to improve the S-League - to help bring fans back to the stadiums to watch the S-League and local cup competitions.

StarHub also re-affirmed its support of Singapore football by coming in as title sponsor of the StarHub League Cup.

Under the agreement, StarHub will broadcast 30 "live" matches per week on SuperSports Arena (StarHub TV Channel 112 and 201), 26 of which are league, and the remaining four in the StarHub League Cup and possibly the RHB Singapore Cup. The "live" games in Brunei and Malaysia will be shown by Astro Arena.

All "live" S-League games are on Thursdays at the Jalan Besar Stadium, and can also be viewed on StarHub's online and mobile platforms.

The first "live" match is tonight's opening 2012 S-League fixture between Gombak United and Harimau Muda at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

ESPN STAR Sports will also produce and broadcast a 30-minute highlight show across major STAR Sports networks across 12 countries every Monday at 10pm from Feb 13.

It will also be shown on StarHub networks every Monday at 9.30pm, while Astro Arena will do likewise in Malaysia and Brunei.