had been used. The new stadium was opened to the public for the first time on 19 July 1973. Redevelopment Plans were made to demolish the stadium and build a multipurpose, Singapore Sports Hub in its place. Demolition works began in the second half of 2007, and the new Sports Hub was eventually completed in 2014. Three finalist consortia submitted redevelopment plans. The 2007 ASEAN Football Championship was the last major event held at the National Stadium before its redevelopment. Closure On 30 June 2007, a closing ceremony titled Field of Dreams – A Tribute to the National Stadium was held at the stadium. 45,000 people attended the event, together with President S R Nathan, members of the Cabinet and Singapore athletes, past and present. Before the ceremony, a football match featuring ex-internationals from Singapore and Malaysia like Quah Kim Song, Terry Pathmanathan, Samat Allapitchay, V. Sundramoorthy, David Lee, Dollah Kassim, Soh Chin Aun, Santokh Singh, Chow Siew Wai and K. Gunalan was played. The match was followed by the highlight of the evening, an international friendly between ASEAN champions Singapore and the Asian Cup bound Australian team, the Socceroos. The Australians won 3–0 with goals scored by English Premier League players Mark Viduka (50, 86 mins) and Harry Kewell (75 min). This was not the last football match to be played in the stadium as it was subsequently used for 11 football matches. The very last goal scored at the stadium was scored by Gholamreza Rezaei of Iran in a 1–3 loss for the hosts against the Iranian national team in an Asian Cup qualifying match on 6 January 2010. Demolition On 29 September 2010: The former National Stadium started its demolition to make way for the construction of the Sports Hub. It was completely torn down in February 2011. Post-closure In February 2013, uniquely designed benches made from the wooden planks from the former National Stadium were presented to the public, as a meaningful way to commemorate this historic landmark. These designs were part of the bench project organized by local creative practice FARM, and jointly presented by Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Singapore Furniture Industries Council. Five of the designs were winning entries of the design competition which invited the public to submit designs for benches using the seating planks from the former National Stadium. The rest of the designs were specially created by commissioned local