{"id":218403,"date":"2016-01-11T06:00:59","date_gmt":"2016-01-10T20:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=218403"},"modified":"2016-01-11T06:00:59","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T20:00:59","slug":"nmsa-can-apply-for-new-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/nmsa-can-apply-for-new-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"NMSA can apply for new grant"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>
The Northern Marianas Sports Association is planning to build a new grandstand at the Francisco M. \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios Baseball Field.(Jon Perez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Northern Marianas Sports Association is eligible to apply for another grant that would help them with their renovation and other planned improvements of Saipan\u2019s sports facilities.<\/p>\n

NMSA executive director Tony Rogolifoi said they would immediately apply after learning this from Northern Marianas Housing Corp. officials.<\/p>\n

Rogolifoi and NMSA vice president Kurt Barnes met with NMHC deputy corporate director Zenie P. Mafnas and NMHC planner and environmental officer Jacob Muna last week to discuss the resurfacing of the Oleai track oval.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told us that [NMSA] is eligible to apply to receive another grant. We\u2019re hoping to submit another application by March or before the December deadline,\u201d said Rogolifoi.<\/p>\n

\u201cNMSA is looking to have new grandstands built at the baseball field and we estimate that the cost would be between $1.2 million and $1.5 million. But the project will depend on the money that will be given to us. We\u2019re okay to work on how much they give us.\u201d<\/p>\n

They are now looking for someone who could help them draw the architectural perspective of the planned grandstand.<\/p>\n

Rogolifoi said they plan to put concession stands and a storage room under the new grandstand. \u201cWe could rent them to people who want to sell food every time there are games or other events. The money could be additional income for NMSA to help us with our daily operations. And at the same time we could keep some of our equipment under it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baseball is also one of the most watched sporting events on the island with Saipan\u2019s hosting of last year\u2019s Asia Pacific Middle East Junior, Senior, and Big League Regional Tournament a crowd drawer every night.<\/p>\n

The gold medal match between the CNMI and Guam in the 2006 Micronesian Games also drew a huge crowd.<\/p>\n

Rogolifoi again repeated that maintaining, improving and renovating the sports facilities would also benefit the CNMI.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have nice facilities then we can bid to host other events. And with Japan hosting the 2020 [Summer] Olympics we could advertise that Saipan is a viable place to rain especially for those countries who want to acclimatize with the weather,\u201d added Rogolifoi. \u201cBut again, it all boils down to money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Northern Marianas Sports Association is eligible to apply for another grant that would help…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":218405,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26,1120,1162,1258],"class_list":["post-218403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-cnmi","tag-nmhc","tag-nmsa","tag-tony-rogolifoi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218403","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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}