Profile Featurette #12

The Long Room

aka. The Sam's Training Ground

The most sophisticated training facility outside of the USA, the Long Room provides The Sam with much needed physical and mental preparation.

Its long rectangle shape allows for modern speed tests and passing practice. Its solid wall provides good shooting practice and its rock-wall overhang part provides adequate sleeping facilities.

Its bleak style helps the team become totally focussed on training, due to there being nothing at all to look at other than the ball. The metal poles on the roof makes the football deflect off them and land in awkward places, sometimes even back to the player who kicked it, thus reminding the players that Wellington Wind can also do this. The green floor reminds the team of grass.

The Long Room is also a set for the Tse-Wong film Own Goal when The Sam is having a practice before the final. Tour operators are now on a waiting list to be allowed to travel into the room.

Most importantly, the Long Room is the official facility for Bum Joon practice. Thrill seekers, on their way between the sky-dives of Queenstown and the Bungy-jumps of the North Island, pay a fee to stand against the back wall and have Bum Joon smash a ball at them. This is only for the rich, however. Five minutes with The Joon will set you back as much as $70,000.

The Long Room is thought to be a definite asset to The Sam in terms of their success on the pitch, and hopefully it won't let them down.