Completed in 1973, the old Jurong Stadium was meant to be part of the sports and recreational amenities for a rapidly developed Jurong town in the late sixties and early seventies. Managed by the Jurong Town Corporation (JTC), the stadium possessed a seating capacity of 8,000. By comparison, the population of Jurong town by the mid-seventies was only 60,000.

Jurong Stadium was based on a cost-effective flattish design, with a sheltered grandstand gallery overseeing the grass pitch that was encircled by an asphalt running track. Four tall iron truss structures, situated at the corners, supported the floodlights.

Jurong Stadium was designated as one of the several decentralised venues for the National Day Parade in the seventies and eighties. For example, in 1977, Jurong Stadium, along with Queenstown Stadium, Jalan Besar Stadium, Toa Payoh Stadium, Tiong Bahru Secondary School and Temasek Junior College, were selected to host the contingents of the National Day Parade. The aim was to bring the National Day celebrations to the doorsteps of the residents, so that more people could watch the parades and displays.

In 1981, 55 contingents and cultural groups participated in the National Day Parade at Jurong Stadium. Reviewed by the Labour Minister Ong Teng Cheong, the parade began with performances of Chinese orchestra and Malay dance music before marching to Boon Lay Drive. In the 1983 National Day Parade highlights, Jurong Stadium’s last hosting of the parade, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) commandos wowed the spectators by parachuting into the stadium.

Jurong Stadium, however, was mainly used for football competitions. As early as 1973, there were plans to introduce a professional National Football League in Singapore. Eight clubs were formed to kick off the league competition. Each club was assigned with their own stadium at Jurong, Jalan Besar, Farrer Park, Toa Payoh, Queenstown, Geylang, Serangoon Gardens and Gillman Barracks. By 1975, the number of teams was expanded to ten.

But the cost of using the stadium’s facilities and services, which included the levy, leasing of the pitch, turning on of floodlights, wages of ticket collectors and standby electricians, cost the teams as much as $400 per match night. After numerous complaints, the Jurong Stadium authorities agreed to waive part of the charges. The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) also helped by sponsoring $20,000 to offset some of the league’s expenses.

Other non-professional but competitive football matches were also once played at the Jurong Stadium. In 1975, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) organised the inter-service final at the stadium. The result was a convincing 3-1 victory for the Singapore Army over the Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN). Others were inter-company matches, such as the Ovaltine League in 1981, participated by the likes of Fitzpatrick Food, General Electric, Ingasoll Rand, Marathorn Letourneau and Union Carbide Asia.

By the late seventies, the interest in local football had waned, resulting in the significant decline in the number of fans attending the matches. In 1986, an unwanted record was set when only 14 fans turned up at the two night matches – Toa Payoh United vs Changi Constituency and Police vs Farrer Park Dynamos – at Jurong Stadium.

In 2003, the local football community was surprised when the S-League, established since 1996, accepted the participation of a foreign club in its league competition in order to raise the overall standard. China’s Sinchi Football Club, formed with young China players, joined the league with Jurong Stadium as its home ground. It hosted its first home game against Home United in its debut season.

Besides football, various activities from school athletics, sports carnivals and telematches to community walks, cycling trips and religious meetings were also hosted at Jurong Stadium. A number of SAF ceremonies and parades also took place at the stadium, such as the Infantry Officers’ commissioning parades and colour presentation ceremonies to the Singapore Guards.

There was also an interesting sight, between 1977 and 1984, outside the stadium where the large carpark was located. It housed numerous private driving schools, set up in temporary tents, umbrellas and tables under the trees.

But their disorderly and unsightly “offices” were soon banned by JTC. To counter this, the driving schools used their lorries, designed with signboards, furniture and telephones, as mobile offices and paid $50 a month to occupy the parking lots. They could then continue attracting and recruiting students who were keen in taking up driving lessons for lorries, cranes or other heavy vehicles.

As many as 25 such driving schools competed with each other. Occasionally, the touting and undercutting went out of hand, resulting in quarrelling and fighting between the driving instructors.

The Registry of Vehicles (ROV) formally established the Jurong Testing Centre near the Jurong Stadium in the early eighties. Other than the Class 4 (lorries and buses) and Class 5 (heavy vehicles) tests held at the test centre, the ROV also introduced the Class 2 test circuit in 1980 for motorcycle learners. The circuit consisted of the usual figure 8 test, triangular pylons set at different intervals and a 30-cm wide plank bridge.

The various operators later merged to become one driving school and relocated to a new office in 1984 after their carpark “offices” were disallowed to continue their operations. Their office structures were dismantled and totally removed by August that year.

Jurong Stadium also once housed Medo in the early eighties, a local restaurant, owned by the Ong family, that offered Chinese and Western set lunches at reasonable prices. At its peak, Medo had five restaurants in Singapore, at various locations such as Outram Park and Orchard Park.

With the modern Jurong East Stadium (at Jurong East Street 31, opened in 1988) and Jurong West Stadium (Jurong West Street 93, opened in 2006) built to serve the larger Jurong community, the old Jurong Stadium became gradually underutilised. Its swimming pool was closed, filled up and converted into Futsal courts, whereas the stadium, in recent years, was mainly used only for jogging and recreational football.

In early 2020, Jurong Stadium finally walked into history as the bulldozers rolled into the premises. By March, the half-century-old stadium was completely torn down.

Published: 22 March 2020