{"id":261438,"date":"2017-10-02T06:02:54","date_gmt":"2017-10-01T20:02:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=261438"},"modified":"2017-10-02T06:02:54","modified_gmt":"2017-10-01T20:02:54","slug":"several-projects-2021-mini-games-lined","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/several-projects-2021-mini-games-lined\/","title":{"rendered":"Several projects before 2021 Mini Games lined up"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_261454\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-261454\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/nmsapix.jpg\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-261454\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A catcher throws from home plate during a baseball game at the Francisco \u201cTan Ko\u201d Palacios Ballfield early this year. Northern Marianas Sports Association plans to build a stand at the baseball field. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Northern Marianas Sports Association executive director Tony Rogolifoi said they have lined up several projects to improve the islands\u2019 sports facilities in time for Saipan\u2019s hosting of the 2021 Pacific Mini Games.<\/p>\n<p>The Oleai Sports Complex will be at the center of those projects as NMSA hopes to spruce up the main hub of the 2021 Games where the opening and closing ceremonies would take place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re very thankful that Gov. [Ralph DLG] Torres expressed his support to our hosting of the 2021 Games. We need a lot of help from all sectors of our community as we plan on improving our sports facilities,\u201d Rogolifoi told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cIf they [government] can help us in providing additional funding, then we could start and get these projects done before 2021,\u201d added Rogolifoi.<\/p>\n<p>They are looking at having additional grandstands at the track oval as it has still space to extend the current viewing area for sports fans. There are similar plans for the stands at the Francisco M. Palacios baseball and Miguel Basa Pangelinan softball fields.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe baseball field is another big project where we hope to add a grandstand that may also be connected to the press box. We also need to have additional indoor gyms where off-island athletes can practice,\u201d said Rogolifoi.<\/p>\n<p>Besides the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium, the CNMI has two other indoor facilities, but Marianas High School and Northern Marianas College gymnasiums are currently awaiting repairs as they were also damaged when Typhoon Soudelor pummeled the island in August 2015.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese improvements of facilities would be beneficial to the entire CNM, especially in the hosting of other regional games or tournaments. We\u2019re glad to hear that the governor also wanted to improve our sports facilities,\u201d Rogolifoi said.<\/p>\n<p>He added that even Pacific Games Council chief executive officer Andrew Minogue and president Vidhya Lakhan, when they visited Saipan last year, told NMSA officials that Saipan has the sports facilities and they only need improvement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re done with the resurfacing of the Oleai track, but it still needs sprucing up since it would host the opening and closing ceremonies. It would be at the center stage during the athletics competitions,\u201d said Rogolifoi.<\/p>\n<p>Athletics, badminton, baseball, canoe (va\u2019a), golf, sailing, swimming, tennis, triathlon, volleyball (beach and indoor), weightlifting, and wrestling are the 12 others sports to be offered in the 2021 Pacific Mini Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Northern Marianas Sports Association executive director Tony Rogolifoi said they have lined up several projects&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":261454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1162,5241,2820,6333],"class_list":["post-261438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-nmsa","tag-pacific-games-council","tag-pacific-mini-games","tag-typhoon-soudelor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261438","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=261438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}