UK Sports Academy

Well, this Sports Academy (proposed to be constructed in UK) thingy is springing up again and it seems that the Ministry of Youth & Sports will respond/update, by end September, upon the completion of an in-depth study. In-depth study? The project is definitely not viable so why still need to carry out an in-depth study. Many people have voiced out that this project will be a "white elephant" once constructed.

RM490 million (approx. US$132.4 million) could be better utilised if it was used to upgrade existing sports centre in Malaysia. Otherwise, it could be used to build more sports complex (smaller scale) to be used by sportsmen/women participating in the bi-annual SUKMA event.

Or the fund could be used to send elite/proven sportsmen/women to Australia (having the best Sports Institute in the world) for further improvement.

Alternatively, the fund could be used to finance elite/proven sportsmen/women to participate in certain sports event that could benefit them.

Otherwise, the fund could be used to build more sporting facilities for the public's usage and rental of such facilities could be obtained too.

By building such a big facilities overseas, who will manage the sports complex? what's the maintenance cost like as UK pound is high on the currency exchange rate? what's the usage rate going to be? Reason given was that the new sports complex could be used as a base for sportsmen/women in preparation for sporting events to be held in similar kind of weather conditions. Who could that be as majority of the M'sian (not looking down on them) do not qualify for the major sporting events. Even sporting giants (referring countries) only send their sportsmen/women to the host country few weeks prior to the event for acclimatisation purposes. And M'sia is trying to do one better - by having a costly underused overseas base.

The current batch of squash and badminton players (who have excelled in their events) do not such costly overseas base and they still succeed. It's all in their minds. But I'm wondering what's in the mind of those government officials who are so adamant to have this sports complex.
Tags: Politics, Sports Academy, UK