After 18 years at Turf City, we’re moving! Answers to your questions and more on our move to new venues in October 2023.
Why were Singapore American School (SAS) & Dulwich College selected as the new locations for Centaurs Rugby, Touch & Netball?
These schools offer some of the best sports facilities in Singapore which will no-doubt improve the experience of our members.
Multi-court and multi-field formats are unique finds in Singapore and will enable us to host tournaments and games that we love; week on week, this helps maintain the community spirit we’ve enjoyed at Turf City with lots of age groups training at the same time.
For netball, we sought out sheltered courts so that we could play in any weather.
Other factors that were considered include: ease of access to the school for our members; permission for parents to stay on site during sessions; parking availability; closeness to MRT and transport links.
What are the new timings for each sport from Term 4?
The website will be updated in time with the timings for each sport on the relevant pages. These timings were shared in the announcement email to members, and copied here for reference.
Will the term dates be similar to what we have enjoyed at Turf City?
Yes! Here are the tentative term dates for 2024, they are very similar to 2023.
Why does Centaurs Rugby have to move to Sundays?
By allocating netball and rugby to different days, we hope to alleviate some of the challenges of getting children across the island for their sports.
Moving rugby to Sunday mornings should avoid traffic congestion along the expressways around the Causeway.
Additionally, Sundays are rarely used by SAS for school events, which means we can run our terms with minimum disruption and as close to what we have done to date at Turf City.
How do you get to these new venues?
Both schools are well-connected to both the public transport network and expressways, so trains, buses, cars and taxis are all viable options. SAS has provided some information on how to get to their campus from across Singapore:
Getting to SAS from all over Singapore
How Accessible is Woodlands? SAS Parent Perspectives
On-site parking at SAS is free and available to parents. Dulwich College allows parents to drop-off their children within the school, but parking is not available on site; there is a HDB multi-storey carpark next to the school that is recommended.
Can parents stay and watch training?
Yes, we have chosen both these schools for their ease of access for our players and their accommodation of parents, siblings and spectators to watch training and games.
Will we be able to host tournaments again?
We hope and intend to! We chose venues that had multiple fields / courts so that running tournaments would be possible again. The formats of these will look different to those held at Centaurs, and we look forward to exploring these opportunities once we’re settled in at our new homes.
How do you hope to recreate the community vibe from Centaurs Sports Park / Turf City at the new venues?
We plan to tour more and host more games and social events, for families and for our parents too.
We will look to share a calendar of events for the whole year early next year so we have things to look forward to and opportunities to come together more frequently.
We are also looking to find a social venue / restaurant sponsor – if you know of anywhere that would be suitable for our members to gather, watch sport and frequent as a “home” please do be in touch by emailing marketing@centaursgroup.com.
Will F&B be available on site?
We are unable to provide our own F&B at Dulwich College. For events, we can explore working with the school’s caterers on a minimum spend basis. We are discussing opportunities regarding F&B at SAS.
Please note that no alcohol may be consumed or sold on either campus.
Will the mid-week training be available for rugby once we move?
We will get settled into the core of our Sunday trainings in Term 4 and assess the possibility of mid-week training thereafter. It may not be possible to run this free of charge, and any bookings of the facilities will need to be approved by our hosts.
Will you have the shop running at each venue?
We are looking into the logistics of how to run our merchandise shop in the new locations. We will have the basics available for sale – mouthguards, water etc.
Will you be running Touch opportunities for adults in 2024?
Once we have settled into the provision of our Touch Academy programs, we will look to provide opportunities for our parents and adults regarding Touch, in discussion with the social/adults team managers. For now, social touch will continue to be accommodated at our Turf City fields.
What rules will we need to follow at our new home?
We are moving to school environments and must respect their rules and regulations put in place for compliance and child safety. This includes:
- No alcohol
- No smoking
- Pick up and bin/remove all litter
- Being off-site in a timely manner
- Staying in our designated areas
- Parking in designated areas
- Security and access measures
We are in the midst of writing and confirming our procedures and processes for first aid, lightning, haze and more with the individual schools.
We’ll be sure to send this information and maps out early before the start of Term 4 and have additional staff on site for the first few weeks to assist with questions. We know it will take some weeks for our children to adjust to the new locations too.
More on the decision-making process
We have been exploring venue options for Centaurs’ sports for the better part of two years. With optimism, we approached this challenge as an opportunity to improve and enhance what we offer to our members.
Did you consider tendering for land to create a new Centaurs Sports Park?
Yes – but nothing so far that has been made available for tender has been suitable for Centaurs’ requirements.
We’ll continue to keep an eye out for state land that becomes available for sports use, and assess its viability based on the conditions and use expectations defined by the tender.
Were ActiveSG venues considered?
We have been focusing on the importance of club and sport sustainability, regular use homes for our current and future communities.
A few factors make ActiveSG venues sub-optimal for long-term bookers like ourselves. The venue bookings only become available at midnight, 2 months in advance, and are in high demand across many different sports. Only a handful of ActiveSG venues may be used for Rugby. ActiveSG booking slots often become booked out within minutes.
Additionally, bookers can be bumped off by National Sport Association use if the venue becomes required by a national team.
All these factors considered makes booking and planning for terms at a time impossible, especially at the scale of our sports clubs across all the 25+ age groups that we have. We know that our members need consistency with timing and location to make their sports with us suitable for their family schedules.
What was the process for the decision-making in the international schools?
With the displacement of so many sports clubs from Turf City, international schools with suitable sports facilities have been inundated with requests for use.
Our proposals outlined how we will fulfil the requirements of these agendas and as such we were successfully awarded access to facilities.