The Sports Arina opens new Jalan Kayu facility which includes indoor pickleball courts

SINGAPORE – Since The Sports Arina (TSA) @ Jalan Kayu’s soft opening in May, Masri Abdul Rahman has been playing pickleball almost daily, sometimes even twice a day.

As the facility, which features 10 air-conditioned pickleball courts, is located just across the street from his home, playing the sport has never been more convenient for the civil servant.

The Jalan Kayu resident fell in love with pickleball since picking it up a year ago. He would play three to four times a week, although his sessions often depended on factors such as the weather and whether he could secure a court.

Before TSA opened, the nearest courts for Masri were a 15-minute walk away at Sengkang Sport Centre. His playing time there was limited, however, as those were outdoor courts which left him at the mercy of the weather, concerns he no longer has to face.

At this facility, the 47-year-old has also been able to befriend more people in the neighbourhood.

He said: “The best part about this thing is I get to know my neighbours here at the courts, not at my block or the lift lobby, so this place has become another community space for us to mingle and play sport together.”

On July 12, the multi-sport venue officially opened its doors, becoming TSA’s second branch alongside its existing facility at Expo.

Besides 10 pickleball courts, this new 80,000 sq ft venue also caters for other sports.

There is a badminton hall with four air-conditioned courts and three padel courts equipped with artificial intelligence-enabled cameras to record matches.

Futsal players can choose between a seven-a-side and a nine-a-side outdoor court, both with an overhead mesh cover to provide shade.

The facility also has a similarly shaded court for basketball or netball.

The largest privately operated multi-sport venue in the area, it also houses academies and schools for table tennis, swimming, football, gymnastics, pickleball and padel.

These include multiple Olympic medallist Feng Tianwei’s eponymous private table tennis academy and Olympic champion Joseph Schooling’s Sports Schooling, which offers aquatic programmes such as learn-to-swim and aqua fitness classes in a heated pool.

The Lion City Sailors Football School, the grassroots and recreational youth football arm of the Singapore Premier League champions, will run programmes for children aged four to 12 at TSA’s Jalan Kayu branch.

Beyond sports, the venue also has a pilates studio, a bathhouse with ice baths, a magnesium hot pool and a sauna, and a day care centre for children.

The vision for TSA’s newest facility, which cost about $5 million to build, is to be a quality venue that is affordable and accessible for everyone, said the company’s partner and director Alan Kwek.

He added: “We have a lot of residents who are just around TSA, so we want to cater to the families around here, to strike a balance so there’s something for everybody here – for the young, the parents and the grandparents.”

Since its soft opening, it has welcomed close to 1,000 Jalan Kayu residents who have registered for membership or resident benefits.

These include two-day priority booking, as well as booking discounts of 10 per cent during peak hours and 20 per cent during non-peak timings.

Jalan Kayu MP Ng Chee Meng, who graced the official opening, said: “I look forward to seeing this venue become a vibrant community space where families, friends and neighbours can connect, stay active and spend meaningful time together.”

Another resident who has benefited is Rudy Ng, who has been frequenting the padel courts.

Before it opened, the 38-year-old used to play the sport once or twice a week at either Laguna National Golf Resort Club or Pop Padel in Bukit Merah.

But with padel courts now just a five-minute walk away, Ng and his wife play the sport almost every other day as they now have the flexibility when they are working from home.

“What we were looking forward to the most was the convenience and all the other facilities we wanted to try out,” said Ng, who is Tsuburaya Fields Entertainment International’s vice-president of business development in Singapore.

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