IBAF Tours Prince George - Possible Location for the 2010 Women’s World Cup

THE WORLD IS TAKING NOTE
Written by Jason Peters, Citizen staff
Monday, 30 March 2009


Prince George may be a few signatures away from hosting the 2010 Women’s World Cup of Baseball.

The city, with the full backing of Baseball Canada, has submitted a bid for the tournament. Recently, Australia’s John Ostermeyer, secretary general for the International Baseball Federation (IBAF), was in town for meetings and a tour and was left with a positive overall impression.

For sports fans, and for the profile of Prince George, that’s good news.
“We have to go through some official protocols, but hopefully we’ll get an announcement in the next couple of weeks,” said Virginia Sprangers, a 2009 World Baseball Challenge committee member who has been working toward bringing the 2010 women’s championship to Prince George.

“There are a couple of things the local hosting committee needs to do. We have to determine the feasibility of hosting this event from a financial perspective, given the economy. But it doesn’t matter where the world event is going to be, there are going to be those struggles and those challenges.”

The idea of hosting the 2010 Women’s World Cup was first raised by Baseball Canada’s Andre Lachance when he was here last June for 2009 World Baseball Challenge meetings. The WBC is July 16-26 and will bring together eight men’s clubs, including the U.S. and Canadian national teams.

Lachance, who lives in Ottawa, was contacted by The Citizen on Monday. He said Baseball Canada will be nudging the IBAF to make its decision as soon as possible.

“We’re going to press them a little bit to make some kind of an announcement as soon as Virginia and her group are ready to go forward,” said Lachance, manager of baseball operations for the national organization and head coach of the Team Canada women. “It’s about 18 months away from that potential event, so the more time we have for (the host committee) to prepare and for us also to prepare, the better. The host country, we’ve got to make sure we’re ready to perform at a high level. We want to do it right.”

Team Canada won a silver medal at the eight-team 2008 World Cup, which was held in Japan. The World Cup was in Chinese Taipei in 2006 and in Edmonton in 2004. If Prince George is successful in landing the 2010 World Cup, it will be played at Citizen Field.

As an added bonus for local fans, Prince George’s Amanda Asay is one of the stars in the Team Canada lineup. All things considered, Lachance regards P.G. as the perfect fit for the tournament.

“I’ve been telling (Ostermeyer) about what great people you guys are and how great you have been in the past,” Lachance said, referring to the highly-successful Baseball Canada Senior Championship of 2002, which was held in Prince George.

“If the host committee can afford it and get the people together to host that event, that would be great. Women’s baseball is growing a lot in Canada. In some provinces it’s now 12 to 15 per cent of the membership, which is awesome. And we have a Prince George player on the national team so it’s a slam dunk. Everything is there for a great event.”