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Expensive Pacific Games trip for CNMI
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Posted on Apr 25 2012
By Roselyn Monroyo
Reporter
Reporter
The 2019 Pacific Games will be an expensive trip for the CNMI.
The Commonwealth is expected to face funding challenges should it decide to compete in the quadrennial meet seven years from now after the Pacific Games Council received bids for the 2019 event from Tahiti and Tonga.
“The cost to get to Tonga is about the same as Tahiti, very expensive,” Northern Marianas Amateur Sports Association president Michael White said in an email forwarded to NMASA members.
Airfare alone for either a trip to Tahiti or Tonga cost around $2,000, according to an airline having flights to the two Polynesian nations.
Add to the airfare the $35 per diem Tonga is proposing. Tahiti’s per diem charges is pegged at $30 and it is allotting $100 million for the hosting of the Pacific Games. It is proposing 13 compulsory sports, excluding baseball (which the CNMI won in last year’s Pacific Games in New Caledonia) and also 13 optional events.
Tonga is hoping to host the Pacific Games for the first time at a lower budget-$70 million-and is expected to build a lot of facilities for the competition. It is offering 12 compulsory sports and 16 optional, including baseball. The winning bid will be selected in October when the Pacific Games Council holds the General Assembly in Wallis & Futuna.
Should the CNMI decide to participate in the 2019 Pacific Games, fundraising efforts must be done early. Last year, the CNMI Team just like the past years struggled for funding to the point that the Commonwealth’s baseball squad almost did not make it to New Caledonia. The CNMI also sent four golfers, two runners, and two beach volleyball players in New Caledonia.
The cost for each delegate to the Pacific Games in New Caledonia was about $2,000 and the Legislature allotted $10,000 financial aid for the CNMI Team, but in the end, no funds were made available for the Commonwealth representatives.
