The Uni Ied WBSC Continues to Build And

TRAINING ROOM8 AROUND THE WORLD WITH THE WBSC The Uni�ied WBSC Continues to Build and Cement Foundation by Lori Nolan, World Baseball Softball Confederation he World Baseball Softball Confederation, the selected for inclusion at the 2020 Games in Tokyo by the IOC Session fol- governing body for baseball and softball as lowing presentations by FILA, WBSC and World Squash last September in Trecognized by the IOC, remains determined to Buenos Aires. outline the organizational structure and governance of the Baseball and Softball executives have been busy in the meeting rooms and new single Baseball Softball international body. at conferences. An interim executive board meeting was held in Cartagena, The Baseball Softball 2020 Olympic bid fi nished second Colombia, chaired by co-presidents Riccardo Fraccari and Don Porter, in out of eight competing sports. Wrestling was ultimately October to discuss the ongoing arrangements for the upcoming inaugural WBSC Congress. A forum among the NF softball family was also held to The WBSC is working with many countries to expand and increase baseball and softball facilities around the world. Page 90 • www.batwars.com • www.baseballthemag.com The WBSC continues to ﬁ ght on behalf of the sports of softball Thomas Bach, IOC President and baseball for their reinstatement to the Olympic Games. update the membership on a wide variety of topics. The co-presidents and other offi cials in November were on-hand to participate in the SportAccord IF Forum in Lausanne, Switzerland. While there, the co-presidents took the opportunity to meet with IOC sports director Christophe Dubi. WBSC co-president Don Porter and Baseball executive director Michael Schmidt were giv- en the opportunity to speak with David Cushnan, editor-in-chief of SportsPro, in a TIME-OUT session of the annual Doha Goals Forum. The discussion centered on sport and society and touched upon the merging of the baseball and softball federations and the 2020 Olympic bid. Both co-presidents also were in Sochi, Russia, for IOC meetings prior to the start of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Thomas Bach, the new IOC president, has indicated he wants more fl exibility in determining the sports/events on the Olympic program and has indicated that adding a sport to the Tokyo 2020 Games is still an option. The upcoming Asian Games in November will showcase the culture, gender equity and attraction that baseball/softball can contribute to the sport movement and society. Incheon, Korea, will host the multi-sport event in September with baseball and softball sharing the same venue – as the 2020 Olympic bid presentation proposed. The organizers will convert the fi eld of play from baseball to softball at the conclusion of the baseball competition—all within a 24-hour period. But the WBSC already has a storied history of sharing facilities with constant and increas- ingly popular expansion. Uganda, with the assistance from the Japanese Embassy in Uganda, unveiled its historic new facility, the National Friendship Stadium, just north of capi- tal Kampala in Gayaza in January. Uganda Baseball Softball Association’s baseball/softball stadium project was the winning bid among a reported 150 competing proposals that were submitted to the Japanese Embassy in Uganda. Uganda joins the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka as the most recent countries to enter into a new era by introducing fi rst-ever dedicated baseball/softball stadiums in their respective countries for their youth and athletes. Athlete/national development programs continued in the traditional “winter” offseason. Clin- ics were held in no fewer than ten countries. Programs extend beyond athletes to offi cials; coaching and umpire certifi cations will be offered to participants at several of the events. National championships in various age groups have taken place throughout the Oceania re- gion as well. In a historic fi rst for women’s softball in Australia, and another advancement for women’s sports, the Women’s National Softball Championship was featured on Fox Sports, showing media’s increasing appetites for the sports. The broadcast numbers from this summer are proof to this. Softball’s World Cup of Softball and the USA Women’s College World Series were broadcast in more than 140 countries in 2013. This year’s college softball television lineup will be the largest yet with an unprec- edented 80 regular season games, in addition to live playoff coverage. MP & Silva, the international media rights agency, furnished a report revealing that the 2013 18u Baseball World Cup, held in Taichung in early September, had a potential broadcast dis- tribution reach of 144,050,000 homes and potential online/mobile reach of 22 million unique users. With baseball and softball now evolving together globally, the long-term future of both sports—and the WBSC—are on a trajectory for sustained growth, cooperation and increased opportunities for global expansion for current and next generations of young male and female athletes. Baseball The Magazine Issue 1 • 2014 Page 91.

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