A photo showing “extensive” damage to the grass on the football pitch at the Macau Olympic Sports Centre Stadium after two gigs by K-Pop boy band Seventeen earlier this month has been widely circulated on social media platforms, and the Sports Bureau (ID) said in a statement on Friday that it had told the concert organiser to bear all the repair costs.
Directly-elected lawmaker José Pereira Coutinho criticised the Sports Bureau for failing to protect the stadium facilities via social media platforms on Thursday in Portuguese, Chinese and English, asking rhetorically: “I’d like to know who’s going to pay for the repairs to the pitch? How much did they pay for renting the space in the stadium? How much did they pay for electricity? What about other costs?” In his post, he also requested the bureau to publicly clarify all the details, highlighting the responsibility of the concert organisers to either repair the damage, or to pay the government for the repairs.
The two gigs, which reportedly attracted about 40,000 fans, were held on January 13-14.
The ID statement said that “once the facilities were returned on Thursday, an immediate on-site inspection was carried out to assess the condition of the pitch, while demanding that the entity responsible immediately repair the damage to the pitch and other facilities caused by the concerts”, underlining that “all costs related to the repairs are the responsibility of the entity that used the facilities”.
The statement did not reveal the name of the two gigs’ organiser.
The bureau said it expected the facilities to be restored in the second half of next month.
The statement said that the bureau “always” paid close attention to the use of the facilities at the stadium from the beginning of the assembly work until the end of the two-night concerts, adding that it had already foreseen the possible need for some time to repair the facilities after both concerts, and had, therefore, already contacted other entities regarding the use of the bureau’s public facilities, so that “not much impact” on the future use of the stadium in Taipa by other event organisers would be felt.
The bureau stressed in the statement that prior to the use of sports facilities under its management, in the future it would demand that the renters take appropriate measures to protect the respective venues’ facilities and equipment, in order to avoid any damage.
This undated photo circulating on social media platforms shows the damage to the football pitch at the Macau Olympic Sports Centre Stadium in Taipa by two K-Pop gigs held there on January 13-14.
