CNMI tri-guy delivers XTERRA petition to MVA

One of the CNMI’s masters of multi-sport journeyed down to the Marianas Visitors Authority on a mission to preserve one of the most grueling triathlons on the planet Monday afternoon as Northern Mariana Islands Triathlon Federation president Dirk Sharer presented a petition signed by 1,123 supporters in hopes to perpetuate the XTERRA Saipan Championship.

World champions, international championship race winners, professionals, amateurs, triathletes, non-athletes, and fans of sport are among the people from Susupe to South Africa interested in keeping the XTERRA Saipan Championship in the CNMI, and Sharer passed along their wishes to the MVA’s Wayne Pangelinan.

“This is great. There’s no doubt in my mind that XTERRA is the pinnacle event in the CNMI…it delivers publicity that we can’t buy,” said Pangelinan.

The popularity and success for the race has never come into question. In the first XTERRA Saipan Championship in 2002 there were a total of 136 participants in the Scramble, the XTERRA Sport, XTERRA Championship, the relays, and the kids bike race. This year there were 408 for an increase of 300-percent. The increase in Japanese participation alone has shot up consistently—growing from 10 in 2002 to 100 in 2006. The rest of the international number followed suit with a 350-percent growth rate in 2006—a race that fielded athletes from 13 countries.

As of last night there were 707 people from around the globe who added their names to an online petition aimed at keeping the XTERRA Saipan Championship at home in the CNMI.

Add to that the hundreds of supporters who have signed the paper form of the document since the close of the 2nd Annual Saipan Sportsfest and it’s clear that there is ample interest, both locally and abroad, to host the event in 2007.

While Pangelinan said that he has always supported XTERRA, he said that the MVA’s decision will not be one of popularity, but rather one of budget. According to Pangelinan, the MVA is currently suffering from a lack of funds that were due the tourism-based agency but were spent elsewhere by the previous administration and reprogrammed for other expenditures.

Though the MVA is forced to make due with limited funding, Sharer asked the organization to make the right decision by challenging Pangelinan to find another “positive event that has had a more calculable return on its investment over the entire course of the event from its infancy until now.”

While the race is one of the larger items on the MVA’s budgetary plate, the figures given by Team Unlimited director of marketing Trey Garman during his presentation to the MVA board last month illustrated how the CNMI gets a significant return on its investment during the event for a total value of more than $2 million and more than 54 million CNMI impressions.

According to Garman, no locale has ever opted to end its relationship with the off-road endurance, but they have opted to increase the level of involvement that TU has in marketing their events.

Yesterday afternoon the MVA held a closed door session on Tinian to map out its strategy for the next five years before the general membership meeting on May 18 and to try to find a solution to retain what many decision makers referred to as “one of the most successful events in the CNMI.”