SINGAPORE – Only 86 people were in the OCBC Arena on a Sunday afternoon, when Germany and France were battling it out at the Women’s World Floorball Championship.

Over 15,000 people play the sport in Singapore, a decent figure for a developing sport – if you consider that rugby has 9,400 registered players and pickleball, in its infancy here, has up to 2,000.

Where were the supporters, when the world’s best women floorballers were in town over the week? What was the perfect platform to showcase the sport and its top athletes has instead felt like a missed opportunity.

For much of the Dec 2-10 event, the teams played to little fanfare in the sparsely filled OCBC Arena.

The Germany-France game was the only time the crowd figures fell to below 100, but the average was not a lot better at 472 despite the attendance improving for the latter stages at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, where 3,971 fans witnessed Sweden’s final victory over Finland for their 11th title.

In the arena and around the venues, the lack of fans at the sport’s marquee event has been disappointing.

It did not go unnoticed by the players, with Finland’s Veera Kauppi saying earlier: “We want fans and people to see when we play because it’s such a big window (of opportunity) for our sport.

“It could be better for our sport to show that there are people in the stands, whether it’s paying people or not, it doesn’t look good when you’re showing empty stands.”

One thing that struck me as I walked to the OCBC Arena earlier in the week was the sparse number of event banners and billboards advertising the event.

Marketing efforts were done digitally, said the organisers, but perhaps more could have been done to get the word out.

As part of the GoGirls! Floorball initiative launched by the International Floorball Federation in 2013 to promote the sport among girls, 16 ambassadors from the various member associations were unveiled for this world championship, each with a message on their wish for women in floorball.

Cutouts of these players could have been put up around the stadium and in shopping malls to pique the interest of passers-by and shoppers, in addition to other promotional materials.

Estonia’s Kati Kutisaar encapsulated it perfectly, saying: “It’s important for young girls to see that women are athletes, women are doing these kinds of things at a high level. It gives them the inspiration and motivation to keep working and see the beauty of the sport.”

Being seen and heard are keys to raising awareness. Who will marvel at the speed and dexterity of Kauppi, the grit and guts of Singapore’s Shannon Yeo and cheer on the United States’ oldest player Megan Addington, 51, if they don’t know who they are?

Perhaps the holiday season contributed to the poor attendance, or the sport is still developing here. But this was a rare opportunity to watch top-class sport up close – it was the first time since 2005 that the world championship was held outside of Europe.

There is also a sizeable community here, with over 15,000 players across 200 schools and 100 clubs actively involved in floorball.

And what better way to engage them than to have fans rally behind the national team, who matched their best-ever result of 12th.

One of the better turnouts was for Singapore’s group match against Germany, when 671 supporters were at the OCBC Arena hall, which seats about 1,500.

The home support made a huge difference. Siti Nurhaliza Khairul Anuar said: “Despite the scoreline, they never fail to cheer us on. One small thing is, even if we missed shots or our shots were blocked, the cheers from the stands were there and it helped us. Being on home ground makes us feel more fire and fight.”

To dismiss the tournament’s poor attendance as a problem smaller sports face is disingenuous, for what we see is symptomatic of a wider issue of the country’s sporting culture, or lack of it.

Singapore has ambitions to be a world-class destination for top sporting events and it has done well in this aspect – just look at football’s International Champions Cup, the Formula One Singapore Grand Prix and new events like the Singapore Squash Open and World Table Tennis Singapore Smash.

The Republic has the expertise and infrastructure to hold these events, but what good are they if the stadiums are impressive but hollow? We should capitalise on them to grow the wider community’s interest in sport.

Similarly, the Singapore Smash was held during the school holidays in March 2023 and, while crowds took time to warm up, event organisers pulled out the stops to keep fans engaged, with outdoor concerts, fan booths, food trucks and warrior-inspired player introductions before matches.

In Singapore, where getting bums into seats is a challenge with so many entertainment options on offer, it is not enough to just stage these events. Organisers have to offer much more.

And maybe, over time, these fans will find their way back into stadiums on the weekends – and if we are lucky, weekdays – to cheer on the teams and make sport a part of their lives.