Sep 24, 2007 S'pore Badminton Association to get new home It will move to S'pore Sports School in Woodlands By Jeanette Wang THE Singapore Badminton Association is set to get a new home. According to a source outside the SBA, the association's operations - both its office and training venue - will move from the Singapore Badminton Hall in Guillemard Road to the Singapore Sports School in Woodlands. When contacted on Monday, the SBA declined comment. However, it is believed that the move could happen as soon as next month, with some national shuttlers moving into the Sports School's dormitories by the end of October. The national team is already having centralised training at the Sports School's 10-court facility ahead of December's South-east Asia Games in Thailand. The move comes after the SBA was told that its annual rent of under $100,000 for the Guillemard Road site will be increased to $1.164 million when the lease ends on Jan 31. The lease is for the badminton hall and its adjacent building, which houses the SBA's office and practice courts. The building had another tenant, Fatty Weng Restaurant, but it moved to Smith Street in March when the SBA was not able to commit to a long-term contract. The restaurant had contributed about $500,000 annually to the SBA's coffers. The SBA receives between $2 million and $3 million in funding a year. But the money is used for training and development. The 55-year-old Singapore Badminton Hall has hosted major sporting and political events in the past, among them the 1955 and 1958 Thomas Cup tournaments. It was also the vote-counting station for the 1962 merger referendum. In recognition of these events, the hall was marked as a historical site by the National Heritage Board and the Singapore Sports Council in 1999. The land will be returned to the State when the 30-year lease between the SSC and Singapore Land Authority expires in January. But, the hall's future remains uncertain.
Yes. This one I already known but If SBA National Players training in Sport School so how about the sport school players? and also how about the wong soon keat shop in Guillemard Road? Frandly speaking, Wong Soon Keat got the shop free from SBA (no need to pay the rent fee).
Question : Yes. This one I already known but If SBA National Players training in Sport School so how about the sport school players? Answer : 2 options No.1 When the National players train, they don't which might basically means less training time for the SSS players and cant train and play like as before as and when they like as the national team train in the mornings and the evening twice a day. No.2 quit sports school! 1 simple comparison. If i rent a house and the rental agreement was that i am the only occupant and suddenly the landlord introduced a gang of new tenants to share the house i will be pissed. I cant pee and **** as and when i want, cant walk around naked i.e no freedom, i will certainly do 1 thing which is to go rent another house. Staying aint a choice, its a non-option. :crying: No.2 Whine and groan and KPKB but in the end swallow their pride as a SSS player stay and adapt and adopt a see how it goes attitude. Either options, RI, Boon Lay Sec, RGS, TKGS will surely cheer if SSS suffers because of this issues. They have long suffered since the setup of the SSS team so they will definitely cheer if they can thrash a not so good SSS team in the future which train more and have all the necessary support to develope players to world class. One thing for sure, i would not send my kids to SSS anymore because i know that they no longer catering to the development of my child but that of the national players. Its better that i send them to main stream schools like RGS or RI and train under other very good coaches. AT least if they cannot make it in badminton, they still have a choice to making it to JC and university and transit into the working class steadily. If the chose SSS, it looks like a Lose Lose situation i suppose (but i might be wrong). Question : and also how about the wong soon keat shop in Guillemard Road? Frandly speaking, Wong Soon Keat got the shop free from SBA (no need to pay the rent fee). My opinion is time is up for Mr Wong. He sure had his fair share of profits from the shop and the dominance over the SBA hall. From now on, if he want to still continue his coaching ( i guess about 100+ players) he will have to fight with everyone, wake up at 7 am sharp and book online for SSC's courts. I dont think it will hurt him and he surely has anticipated about this day. i think he would long ago saved for this rainy day. Making 20 - 30k a month (a smart guess?) for him i think made him probably a very rich man already. He might as well consider to retire. Just my opinion no offence meant.
Actually, the full time national players can train when the SSS badminton players are not using the court. Also, I actually think that the move of the national players into SSS would be a good one because they set an example to the SSS players and even help pull them up in standards. The way I see it, the sight of the national players training there will be a source of inspiration and motivation to train even harder. And also looking at those full time national players do seemingly impossible things will make them penetrate through their psychological barriers even sooner. Really the only problem is court management. And I think that that is something resolveable. Well, we'll just see what happens And btw, RI and RGS cannot prepare your children to become world class players. Trust me, the work load there is too great. They may get them to become top players in Singapore, but not world class
