By Bryan Manabat
[email protected]
Variety News Staff
A LONG-AWAITED $14 million aquatic center is set to break ground in mid-May, a milestone that NMI Swimming Federation President John Hirsh says will reshape athlete development and revive the local sports-tourism economy.
“This is going to be a game changer for our swimmers and for the entire community,” Hirsh told the Saipan Rotary Club last Tuesday. “For the first time in eight years, we’ll have a world-class, 50-meter pool built to international standards.”
The project is funded through the Commonwealth Economic Development Authority in partnership with the Department of Commerce, which secured federal economic-development funding for the project. The facility will rise behind the Ada gym and will feature a 50-meter competition pool with a bulkhead, allowing the space to be divided for simultaneous training, lessons, and water-fitness programs.
The NMI has been without a regulation-size pool since the Marpi 50-meter facility closed in 2018 following the resort shutdown and pandemic disruptions. Since then, swimmers have trained in hotel pools, private facilities, and the ocean. Despite those limitations, NMI athletes have continued to compete internationally, including at world championships under World Aquatics, the Switzerland-based global governing body for the sport.
Hirsh said the new aquatic center is already drawing interest from overseas teams seeking warm-weather training sites, particularly from Japan and Korea during winter months. Before the Marpi pool closed, Saipan regularly hosted visiting clubs.
“We’re getting endless calls from teams that want to come here,” he said. “Once this pool opens, sports tourism is going to take off again.”
Hirsh also highlighted the project’s economic potential during the Saipan Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Forum at Kensington Hotel on Wednesday, noting that the facility will anchor efforts to expand the islands’ sports-tourism sector.
Construction is expected to begin in mid-May.
Bryan Manabat was a liberal arts student of Northern Marianas College where he also studied criminal justice. He is the recipient of the NMI Humanities Award as an Outstanding Teacher (Non-Classroom) in 2013, and has worked for the CNMI Motheread/Fatheread Literacy Program as lead facilitator.
