Once Oleai closes, leagues to look for alternate venues

A Rockies pitcher throws to the batter during an earlier game in the 2019 Saipan Basebal League at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Ballfield. (Roselyn B. Monroyo)

When the Oleai Sports Complex shuts down, organizers of ongoing leagues that utilize the facility will have no choice but to look for other venues for their games.

The Atkins Kroll Marianas International Basketball League is one of the competitions being held at the Gilbert C. Ada Gymnasium and league co-commissioner Clint Albert can’t help, but express sadness with the impending closure of the complex.

“It’s sad to hear the news on the closure of the sports complex and its facilities. The closure takes away another sports venue for players, the youth, and our kids. The Ada Gym has tons of history tied up to it,” he said.

Albert added that MIBL is nearly halfway through the season and if the shutdown will push through and will be longer, they have to resort to other gyms.

“We are still in talks with Agape Christian School and we are also looking at other possible venues like Civic Center and Gillette Multipurpose Gymnasium at the TSL Sports Complex,” he said. “The reason we came up with the AK Toyota MIBL was to bring up the basketball spirit on the island and ignite the passion back to the players and fans alike.”

The Oleai Sports Complex faces a shutdown due to lack of funding, as Northern Marianas Sports Association, which manages and operates the facility, did not receive appropriation from the budget bill for fiscal year 2019-2020 passed by the Legislature last Thursday. Since 2014, when NMSA was created and assigned to take care of Oleai Sports Complex, the group had been receiving funding from the government.

NMSA has other funding sources, including its income from the lottery program, but money collected from that is allocated for CNMI athletes and officials’ participation in off-island tournaments, with the recent one the XVI Pacific Games in Apia, Samoa last summer.

NMSA executive director Tony Rogolifoi said that with the government’s decision to zero out the association’s funding, they could only operate the sports complex until next month.

“For us, we need to continue because we have ongoing activities. We just opened basketball and volleyball and baseball is still ongoing. If we are to close, who is going to handle the operations? We can do it temporarily, for free, but we cannot continue without funding,” he said.

The Avengers Volleyball League, which is organized by Saipan Volleyball Club will also be affected by the shutdown. Avengers Volleyball League organizer Shawn Davis said the closure would force the league to look elsewhere to conduct their games.

The 2019 Saipan Baseball League just concluded its regular season and will start the semis series next weekend. Matches are played only every Saturday morning, as the lighting system at the Francisco “Tan Ko” Palacios Ballfield is still broken. The semis will be a best-of-three affair, while the finals will follow a best-of-five format.

SBL will also select players that will represent the CNMI to the 2019 Micronesian Baseball Classic in Guam and the team will need a venue to train for the competition.