Gov. Benigno R. Fitial gave local athletes and fans of sports throughout the region cause for a brief celebration yesterday afternoon after announcing that he will entertain a financial plan to host the 2006 Micronesian Games put forth by concerned members of the athletic community.<\/p>\n
\u201cNext Friday, if nothing develops from the chairman\u2019s visit to Palau, we\u2019ll get together\u2026and we\u2019ll decide, based on the quantification of the requirements\u2014because we have to quantify every single support that the government will be providing\u2014and then we\u2019ll make a decision the same day,\u201d Fitial said.<\/p>\n
A crowd of protestors rallied outside Fitial\u2019s Capitol Hill office yesterday afternoon in hopes of convincing him to rescind his previous decision to withdraw the CNMI from hosting the Games. Following the governor\u2019s regularly scheduled press conference, Fitial invited the group of concerned athletes, coaches, parents, and supporters for an audience inside the conference room to hear their requests.<\/p>\n
Armed with signs that read \u201cNo money, only medals\u201d and \u201cLet them play,\u201d the swimmers, softball players, baseball players, triathletes, basketball players, track and field competitors, parents, students, and more proceeded into the conference room. By the time the final protestors passed through the main entrance, they were forced to look on from the doorway as the room was full.<\/p>\n
Once they settled in, Saipan Swim Club head coach and recently honored Coach of the Year Michael Stewart took center stage to explain the purpose of the group\u2019s visit. <\/p>\n
\u201cGovernor, we\u2019re here, sir, to ask for the support of the government\u2014we\u2019re not asking for anything in the financial aspect of it\u2026 [Our organizations] can organize within ourselves [in] running our own sports. We are asking for support from government personnel and facilities to help facilitate the visitors that do come in and to provide transportation. We believe that, as an athletic organization that puts on different meets, we can host the Games. We know that it would be a benefit to the CNMI, and Saipan specifically. We\u2019re talking 1,500 athletes plus families. We\u2019re not asking for financial support\u2014just your okay and backing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
When Fitial asked for the type of support that the Games would need from the government, Stewart replied that the committee would need transportation, security, the use of Marianas High School, and possibly an upgrade of the facilities.<\/p>\n
The governor expressed his enthusiasm for the Games, but explained that the current fiscal health of the CNMI is not well. Combined with reports of the planning committee\u2019s lack of progress and the lack of time remaining to organize, Fitial said that he had no choice but to make the call to hand the hosting duties to a more suitable host.<\/p>\n
Bob Coldeen, one of the organizers of the 1990 Micronesian Games, stepped up to offer that there was no aspect of the 2006 edition that would require more than four months of planning to achieve, and said that he could provide a financial plan by next Friday to prove it.<\/p>\n
The CNMI\u2019s chances of hosting of the Games hinge not only on the new committee\u2019s ability to draw up a list of expenses, needs, and the plan to satisfy those needs, but on the hopes that the committee in Palau doesn\u2019t decide to take over the hosting responsibilities this summer.<\/p>\n
Reaching back to his experience as one of the organizers of the 1969 Micronesian Olympics, Fitial stressed the importance of the financial sub-committee if the group is to have a chance. Coldeen said that the 1990 Micronesian Games had only four major sponsors, but that this time around that he will be looking for individual companies to take over the sponsorship of individual sports.<\/p>\n
The new committee will have plenty to do in the coming week, and will welcome assistance from all of members of the community to make the Games a reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Benigno R. Fitial gave local athletes and fans of sports throughout the region cause for a brief celebration yesterday afternoon after announcing that he will entertain a financial plan to host the 2006 Micronesian Games put forth by concerned members of the athletic community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98132","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=98132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98132\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}