10 Good (enough) reasons why we must have our own sports training center overseas.

1. The athletes will learn on how to overcome their homesickness by training
there. I have a strong feeling that many of them failed to perform
well during international events due to homesickness.
2. The athletes will learn on how to adjust their stomach and
tastebuds to healthy food. I.e the nutritionist will be able to ensure
they don't take nasi lemak/roti canai/nasi beriyani/goreng pisang
throughout training period. (But then, if it's near London, this
is going to be rather difficult, maybe as the said food can be found
rather easily on the streets.)
3. The athletes will learn on how to adjust to cold weather. I think
you all could see during the World Cup that players from 'hot' countries
had problem performing in cold weather.
4. It's much cheaper to fly our potential athletes overseas than getting
good coaches to come and stay in this country. Argh... you just do
the maths lah. Furthermore, it must be more appealing to international
coaches to become expatriates in England than in KL (duhhhhh.....)
5. Many more people who are currently involved in the local sport scene
will have the chance to go abroad. Wow, their resume will look very
impressive then, there will be sentences like: "Accompanied, assisted
and supervised so and so at the London training center for 2 months".
6. Malaysians abroad will have access to sports equipment, courts, gym,
swimming pools with a minimum fee there (kalau free, lagi best lah.)
7. During non-peak training periods, the athletes' hostels can always
be rented out to Malaysian tourists who only have enough money
to pay for airfare but not lodging (like me, for instance!).
8. The huge courts and mini stadiums can always be used for holding
musicals, concerts and other events especially those famous
Majlis Anugerah. It would be
nice to hear on the radio, "Datanglah beramai-ramai ke Majlis Anugerah
Bla bla bla... yang akan diadakan di Pusat Latihan Sukan M'sia di
Jalan Bla bla bla... London..."
9. It's a long term investment you people...! Your eyes must've been
rolling up and down when you saw the estimated figure (about RM490 mil)
in the newspapers. Hey, look at it this way ... our Bukit Jalil has
been there for almost 10 years now. With good maintenance and management
it can still generate revenue for the next 50 or 60 years, ok. How often
do people rebuild stadiums? Every 100 years? 300 years? So, it is still
way too early to say that we'll be wasting people's money.
10. Why London? Why not Dubai, Amsterdam, Brazil, Washington DC, Germany or
Ghana? Hmmmm... this one I need to ask our dear Azalina first lah...