SEA Games 2015: YOG version 2?

After a quarter of a century, the smallest country in Southeast Asia will host the region's biennial sports event again. The SEA Games will return to Singapore in 2015, from the 5th to 16th of June. The little red dot was also host in 1983 and 1993.

While I am glad that Singapore is finally the host again, memories of the epic fail Youth Olympic Games (YOG) in 2010 will definitely be back to haunt me and many other Singaporeans.

Lim Teck Yin, the CEO of Singapore Sports Council, said that the event will stay within budget.

"One of the strategies that we are trying to use to manage our budget is to come out with our procurement early enough so that if we need to look for alternatives which are more cost effective, we will be able to do so and have time to do so."

The inaugural "international kids sports day" caused an uproar then when it ballooned to about $300 million. The amount was triple of what the organizing committee had initially stated. Many other flops like food poisoning and the "exploitation" of school students also contributed to the tarnishing of Singapore's image.

Although Lim is positive that the organizers will not screw up the budget, he did not reveal its amount. Isn't it meaningless to tell people that you will not exceed your budget when you did not even state it in the first place?

It's like a student promising his parents that he will achieve his target score for the Chemistry examination but declined to say what the target score was. He comes home with say, 78 marks and tells dad and mum that his target score was 75 and he has succeeded.

I have a feeling that this is what the SEA Games organizing committee have up its sleeves. After a few months or even a year, a press conference will be called and the so-called finalized budget will be announced, with emphasis that it was not exceeded.

Financial issues aside, the accommodation is also questionable. Instead of an athleles' village, the sportsmen and sportswomen will be staying in hotels within the city to increase the convenience of travelling to their competition venue, mainly the Singapore Sports Hub.

YOG 2010 was also infamous for "kicking out" NTU students from their hostels to allow competitors to live there. There were even YOG lanes on expressways and roads. Vehicles had to give way to approaching YOG buses on these lanes.

Looks like the SEA Games planners had put in effort to review YOG 2010 by minimizing the area between the venues and competitors' home.

Last but not least, please do not get JJ Lin.