PLAYING DAYS AFTER GRADUATION

[KINGKONG]

I believe most players started playing canoe-polo during the varisity or poly days. Just wondering anyone has any ideas or lobang on how to continue playing this sport after graduation?

Currently to my knowledge, only KLSSC and SCF have some cp canoes for rental at Kallang Basin. Anyone know of any suitable training grounds in Singapore?

[waternut]

SWIMMING POOLS

I have done much research into finding alternative sites since mid-2000 and base on what I gather from Sports Council and various private swimming pools, it is possible to rent pool & play.

The obstacle is money. As long as people are willing to pay. I don't see any problem getting swimming pools.
Money Obstacles in 3 forms -
(1) Rental of pool (costing between S$100 to S$300 per hour for different types of pool), excl gst.
(2) Investment into building a decent steel/aluminium goalposts (costing between S$2500 to S$10000 per piece, depending on requirement on quality)
(3) Storage charges (negotiable)

Another problem associated with swimming pool is problem getting weekend slots. It is almost impossible to rent weekend slots as Sports Council wants to keep the pool for public swimming.

In fact, I inititated and conducted several discussions with Mr Chua, SCF president, and with Sports Council officials regarding rental of pool for the canoepolo national squad...

However, because SCF does not have budget for rental of pool for national team on a weekly basis, this discussion/project is currently on hold.

OUTDOOR COURTS

I am currently pursuing the possibility of constructing a outdoor playing site. The main obstacle to this alternative playing-site concept is the initial outlay of building the court.

An initial estimate done in 2001 puts the cost of building such a court at approximately S$250,000 - excluding installation.

I managed to find a designer/manufacturer who can bring the cost down to approximately S$80,000.

Again, it will be difficult for SCF to pursue this avenue because of difficulty finding this amount of money. In view of these problems, I decided to try approaching this problem from a business angle.

Get the court designer/manufacturer to invest in the court and establish a business to promote Canoepolo and to allow anyone who wants to play canoepolo to try out the game.

The costs will be recovered in the following manner
(1) Court Rental to local teams; marked at rental rates lower than that in swimming pools
(2) Free usage of water area outside the court for team drills, game play etc
(3) Storage charges for storage of personal kayaks. At reasonable market rates.
(4) Conduct "Intro to canoepolo" courses at the site to interested parties
(5) And in near future, selling advertisement space around the court.

The proposal has been completed and is currently under evaluation by relevant authorities. I really hope to have good news for everyone in the Singapore Canoepolo Community in 2-3 weeks time. But the proposal is out of my hands now. I will have to wait and see what is the "authority's" decision.