{"id":212680,"date":"2015-10-19T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2015-10-18T20:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=212680"},"modified":"2015-10-19T06:00:53","modified_gmt":"2015-10-18T20:00:53","slug":"bigger-funding-source-needed-to-improve-sports-venues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/bigger-funding-source-needed-to-improve-sports-venues\/","title":{"rendered":"Bigger funding source needed to improve sports venues"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northern Marianas Sports Association executive director Tony Rogolifoi said a bigger amount will be needed to fix and improve Saipan\u2019s sports facilities after several typhoons caused major damage the past few months.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The encasement in the throwing events of athletics is one of the facilities that need replacement after being damaged by several typhoons that hit Saipan.
(Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rogolifoi said the Federal Emergency Management Agency\u2019s assistance is a big help as they prepare Saipan\u2019s facilities for the XI Pacific Mini Games, which the Commonwealth will be hosting in the summer of 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cFEMA had already checked the [Gilbert C.] Ada Gym[nasium] and other facilities here inside the sports complex. We\u2019re just waiting for the funds to start fixing things and the renovation,\u201d Rogolifoi told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we need a lot of money because we\u2019re not only going to repair the facilities but also improve and expand it. It all boils down to funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said FEMA\u2019s assistance won\u2019t be enough and the money NMSA collects from the instant scratchies lottery is reserved to shoulder travel costs of the CNMI delegation to the Pacific Games, Pacific Mini Games, and the Micronesian Games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping the governor or Legislature would do their share. The money from the scratchies won\u2019t be enough and we\u2019re going to use it for travel of CNMI athletes to the Pacific Games.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ada Gym\u2014including the offices\u2014and the Francisco M. \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios and the Miguel \u201cTan Ge\u201d Pangelinan ballfields were among those that were heavily damaged by Typhoon Soudelor.<\/p>\n

The Oleai track and field facility is also due for repairs and resurfacing with the money coming from a Community Development Block Grant from the Northern Marianas Housing Corp.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ada Gym right now is our main concern. We\u2019re having problems in organizing indoor games and we already received lots of requests from different organizations to use the facility,\u201d said Rogolifoi.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut as of now we can\u2019t accommodate them. The gym remains closed until we fix the leaking roof.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aside from the roof leaks, which flooded the court when Typhoon Champi hit Saipan, the ceiling of the offices inside the Ada Gym and the conference room also needs to be repaired.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gym and our offices were filled with water after the typhoon. The water came from the sides so the windows should also be repaired,\u201d added Rogolifoi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Northern Marianas Sports Association executive director Tony Rogolifoi said a bigger amount will be needed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":212683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7653,493,1654,122],"class_list":["post-212680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ada-gym","tag-fema","tag-pacific-games","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}