TURF CITY, GHOST CITY

Tenants mourn loss of sports venue, but some have found alternative locations

- Deepanraj Ganesan

From the persistent referee whistles to shouts and squeals from recreational footballers, The Cage's seven football pitches have been the heart of Turf City for the past decade.

The sprawling 140ha Bukit Timah site about the size of 200 football fields also housed facilities for rugby, netball, softball, and mountain biking- making it a hive of activity for families and people of all ages.

Today, however, it resembles a ghost town Almost all the tenants have left, told by the authorities to vacate by Dec 31, as Turf City has been marked for residential use, while the Land Transport Authority also plans to build a new MRT station on the Cross Island Line there.

Since 2019, tenants have been given two successive 18-month tenancy extensions to give them time to relocate.

Turf City is the site of the former Bukit Timah Turf Club racecourse, which operated from 1933 until it closed in 1999 when horse racing activities moved to Kranji.

The Cage, which also operates a futsal facility in Kallang, has found a new site in Harding Road in the Dempsey area, and this will open in February 2024. It is, however, about one-eighth the size of its previous 93,000 sq m Turf City premises, which also had room for paintball, archery, tennis, basketball, and cricket.

The new Dempsey location does not have an 11-a-side pitch. Instead, there will be six five-a-side pitches, three padel courts, and a cricket facility.

Co-owner Rajesh Mulani, 53, said that post-pandemic demand for his four 11-a-side fields at Turf City was good. They were fully booked from 5pm to 11pm on weekdays and the entire weekends from 8am to 11pm. The only sign of activity now is the ongoing dismantling works.