Estimated Costs and Expense Apportionment for Hosting 2025 World Aquatics Championships

Ms Hazel Poa asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) what is the current estimated cost of hosting the 2025 World Aquatics Championships; (b) what was the original budgeted cost in February 2023 when Singapore replaced Kazan, Russia as the host; and (c) what portion of the costs will be met by (i) the Government (ii) private sponsors and (iii) other sources, respectively.

Ms Joan Pereira asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) what is the current estimated budget for Singapore to host the World Aquatics Championships in 2025; and (b) what are the plans in place to manage expenses based on this budgeted amount.

This response to Ms Hazel Poa and Ms Joan Pereira will also address a related Parliamentary Question filed by Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim for a subsequent Sitting.

As part of our strategy to bring world-class sporting events to Singapore, we aim to attract events that will bring economic, social and sporting benefits to Singapore and Singaporeans.

These events draw in overseas spectators and boost tourism spending. Local entities will be involved in the organisation of these events which will create job opportunities for Singaporeans and build deeper capabilities for future events.

Singaporeans can spectate the main events and watch our Team Singapore athletes have an opportunity to compete against world-level athletes. At the same time, Singaporeans can also look forward to participating in a variety of community activities organised at the sidelines of the main event. These will garner interest for the sport and inspire our next generation of sporting talents.

Our athletes can also gain valuable experience and be inspired from competing against the best athletes in the world. Such opportunities, for example, obtaining wild card entries, would not have been available if these competitions had not taken place in Singapore.

When the opportunity to host the World Aquatics Championships 2025 arose, Singapore decided to pursue it. This is the highest tier of world championships in aquatics, and will attract the best in the world to compete in Singapore. As the host, our aim is to deliver a positive event experience for athletes and spectators, while being fiscally prudent and cost-effective. To this end, we have undertaken detailed planning and implemented stringent budget measures, taking reference from the learnings of previous hosts of the Championships as well as Singapore’s experience in hosting other large-scale sporting events.

Over the past year, we have been working closely with World Aquatics (AQUA) to understand and agree on the operational and technical requirements for a competition of this scale and to draw up the budget required to host the event. The estimated budget is sufficient to allow us to meet AQUA’s requirements and is also comparable to previous editions of the World Aquatics Championships.

With less than a year away to the Championships, the organising committee has commenced efforts to secure sponsorships and negotiate service contracts for the event. As these are presently ongoing, due to commercial sensitivities of these efforts, we are unable to disclose the budget at this point. The costs to be borne by the Government and sponsorships will only be finalised after the event has concluded.

The competition venues, including temporary ones which will be constructed, will meet international standards. The temporary competition venue will house a competition pool, a warm-up pool, ample spectator seats and dedicated areas for community events. Hosting swimming and artistic swimming events in temporary competition venues is comparable with other major games and previous editions of World Aquatics Championships in Hungary, Japan and Qatar, where the respective local organising committees had built up to six temporary pools for each of the Championships they hosted. The purpose-built venue will be designed according to competition standards prescribed by AQUA, as well as provide sufficient ancillary facilities that will allow spectators to have a positive experience. This includes provisions for sheltered seating and accessibility to community activities which will be co-located within the Kallang Alive precinct.

To maximise the usage of these pools, we have made plans to use them for the World Aquatics Masters Championships that would be held from 26 July to 22 August in the same year. We are also exploring the feasibility of extending the use of the competition venue before and beyond these Championships.