Another sports association in Kuala Lumpur is being forced out of their “home”. This time it’s the Kuala Lumpur Hockey Association (KLHA).
City Hall wrote to the association on May 9, stating the offer to manage the stadium has been revoked and that KLHA will need to leave the stadium within 14 days from the date of the letter.
KLHA president Datuk Seri Megat Shahriman Zaharudin confirmed the letters sighted by Twentytwo13 and now hopes City Hall will allow them to rent an office space at the stadium.
“We are waiting for their (City Hall’s) response to allow us to rent their place. If they are not going to allow us to rent, then we will have to move somewhere else, maybe to Tun Razak Stadium which is under Malaysia Stadium Corporation,” said Megat.
“We are still based at Kuala Lumpur Hockey Stadium and waiting for City Hall to give us the rental rates as we need an office.”
He added it was ironic that City Hall speaks about commercialisation and monetising assets but no one else is occupying the stadium besides KLHA.
“If there is one party that is interested in renting the place, cepat-cepat lah (quickly reach out). It’s not in Bukit Bintang. Nobody is there (at the hockey stadium).”
City Hall is also demanding RM19,000 from KLHA – money credited to the association despite “terminating” the relationship in 2018.
City Hall pays KLHA RM19,000 every month to help manage the venue. The local council did not renew its contract with KLHA which ended on Aug 31, 2018. Despite this, City Hall paid RM19,000 to KLHA for September 2018.
“We will write to City Hall, informing them that this happened during the previous exco’s tenure and that we have spent the money. We will also inform them (City Hall) that we have maintained the stadium with our own money and maybe we will work out a win-win situation for both parties,” said Megat Shahriman.
“The RM19,000 is not enough to pay the utility bills. We counter proposed, saying that City Hall just pay us RM10,000 to manage the venue but City Hall will cover the utility bills.
“City Hall manages bookings directly anyway. We manage the security and cleaning of the place.”
This is not the first time KLHA has been asked to leave. City Hall sent KLHA a notice to vacate the place in February 2019, as reported by Twentytwo13 then.
Kuala Lumpur Badminton Association (KLBA) has also been left “homeless” after the iconic Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium was demolished to make way for development.
The land housing the badminton stadium was bought over by developer Mah Sing in 2017 and KLBA has been forced to train and conduct programmes at privately owned halls over the past three years.
Till today, no alternative badminton stadium or academy has been built. Instead, City Hall had in a strongly worded press release on June 11, stressed that it is the land owner and owns the assets. The final paragraph of the press release stated that the soon-to-be-built badminton academy is an asset of City Hall and the mayor has the right to appoint any party it thinks can manage the place.
Kuala Lumpur Football Association (KLFA) too is unclear if it will be allowed to manage or to be housed at the Kuala Lumpur Football Stadium as its 15-year contract with City Hall ends in January 2021.
