WBSC GIVES OFFICIAL PRESENTATION TO ADD BASEBALL, SOFTBALL TO TOKYO 2020 OLYMPICS

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WBSC Summer: U-12 Baseball World Cup, U-18 Baseball World Cup and U-19 Junior Women’s Softball World Championship showcase youth appeal, women in sport in countdown to September Tokyo 2020 decision

Lausanne, Switzerland — The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) concluded a two-day interview from 7-8 August in the Japanese capital with Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games organisers to outline the viability and potential value added to the Tokyo 2020 Games with baseball and softball — Japan’s national sport — included.

WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari led a seven-person baseball/softball delegation in Tokyo that included home run king and sports legend Sadaharu Oh and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) chief Katsuhhiko Kumazaki. NPB, Japan’s most popular sports league and WBSC Member, attracted more than 23 million spectators in 2014, the second-highest recorded attendance of any sports league in the world in 2014.

Oh joined the WBSC delegation following his throwing out of the ceremonial first pitch on 6 August that commemorated the 100th anniversary of Japan’s annual “Koshien” National High School Baseball Championship — the legendary two-week youth tournament that fills the 48,000-seat Hanshin Stadium and is televised nationally.

Also part of the delegation from WBSC leadership was Secretary General Ms. Beng Choo Low, Softball Executive Vice President Dale McMann, Japan Softball Association (JSA) Vice President and three-time Japanese Olympic Softball Team coach Ms. Taeko Utsugi, Athlete Representative and 2008 softball Olympian, Ms. Maria Soto.

WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari credit ibaf.org

Baseball/softball is one of eight new sports being considered by Tokyo 2020 following Olympic Agenda 2020’s landmark ruling last December that allows Olympic hosts to propose adding sports that are not currently on the Olympic programme but could help engage audiences and young people in the host nation and around the world.

The top sport in Japan in terms of youth participation, infrastructure, media coverage and fan-following, baseball and softball are played by an estimated 65 million men and women athletes in over 140 countries worldwide.

“Given our sport’s footprint in Japan and worldwide, WBSC and our global partners hoped to have shown during the interview in Tokyo that staging Olympic baseball and softball in 2020 would be easily accommodated — fully in the spirit of Olympic Agenda 2020 — and the added value as well as the historic value would be a ‘home run’ for Tokyo 2020, the Olympic Movement and our sport,” said President Fraccari.

Following the presentation to Tokyo 2020, President Fraccari and legendary coach Utsugi attended the finals of 2015 JSA Japan Cup that brought the Women’s National Softball Teams of Australia, Chinese Taipei, Japan and the United States to Ogaki City.

Tokyo 2020 is expected to announce a proposal for additional event(s) by 30 September 2015.

Connecting to Youth, Women in Sport and Universality

Ahead of Tokyo 2020’s additional event announcement, the XXVII WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup 2015 will unite the sport’s future stars in Osaka from 28 August to 6 September, with the semi-finals and finals taking place at historic Hanshin “Koshien” Stadium, built in 1924.

The 12 qualified nations of the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup heading to Osaka mark a global footprint that represents Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania and spans across the entire western hemisphere from North-, South-, and Central America and the Caribbean.

The last WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in 2013 had a potential broadcast reach of 144 million homes and potential online/mobile reach of 20 million.

The XI WBSC Junior Women’s Softball World Championship 2015 is currently taking place from 9-15 August at the premier softball facility in the United States, at the ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City.

Battling for the world championship in Oklahoma City are the Women’s U-19 National Teams of Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Czech Republic, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and the United States.

Snoopy Ambassador 2015 WBSC U12 Baseball World Cup

The III WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup 2015 — the only official youth world championship in all of sport in this age category — concluded days before the interview with Tokyo 2020.

The final of the WBSC U-12 Baseball World Cup produced a record sell-out crowd of more than 11,000 fans at Tainan Municipal Stadium on 2 August, and more than 150,000 online and mobile viewers tuned into the live global webcast of the final.

The 12 qualified nations in Tainan were world No. 1 Japan, defending world champions No. 2 United States No. 3 Cuba, Asian champions No. 4 Chinese Taipei, No. 8 South Korea, No. 10 Venezuela, No. 12 Mexico, No. 14 Australia, No. 15 Brazil, Americas champions No. 16 Nicaragua, No. 28 France, and European champions No. 32 Russia.

Snoopy and the Peanuts Gang were the Official Global Ambassadors of the WBSC 2015 U-12 Baseball World Cup.

In November, the WBSC is launching a new flagship international baseball competition, the Premier12, which is the Men’s National Team championship that unites the top 12 nations from the WBSC World Rankings. The semi-finals and finals of the inaugural 2015 WBSC Premier12 will be staged at the iconic Tokyo Dome. The 2019 Premier12 could potentially serve as an Olympic qualifier, helping to further promote Tokyo 2020 in the lead-up to the Games.

Overseeing the sport’s wave of global activity, WBSC’s organisational structure and reach consists of 212 National Federations and Associate Members, including professional leagues, across 141 countries and territories worldwide.

WBSC’s previous Olympic bid, which proposed men’s baseball and women’s softball for the 2020 and 2024 Olympic Games, earned the second-highest amount of votes at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires in 2013, finishing behind wrestling.

The final decision on the composition of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic sports programme will be taken at the 129th IOC Session in Rio de Janeiro in August 2016.

WBSC Unveils First-Ever Logo For World Softball Day #WorldSoftballDay

WBSC, the world’s governing body for baseball and softball, has unveiled a new logo in celebration of World Softball Day 2015 today, 13 June.

The official logo and look — created by branding experts The Works Ltd — is meant to represent the colours of the worlds flags mixing together and uniting for World Softball Day 2015. The dynamic and diverse shapes embrace each other, merging together through a spectrum of colours to form the central softball icon.

Said Executive Vice-President Dale McMann: “The WBSC is thrilled with this look, which, to us, reflects our sport’s energy, universality and inclusiveness — and connection to young people all around the world.”

The creation of World Softball Day itself by the world governing body was inspired by the 13 June 1991 announcement by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that women’s softball would debut at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, USA. World Softball Day also pays tribute to Olympic Day, which is celebrated annually on 23 June.

For World Softball Day 2015, WBSC will be encouraging all its 141 national federations and individuals of all ages, abilities and backgrounds to participate in softball activities as part of a global initiative to put softball at the service of society to promote health, physical activity, social integration and international spirit, as well as to inspire future generations of boys and girls to seek excellence and become empowered through sport, and through softball.

“World Softball Day will be a time of celebration to promote an ideal that anybody in the world can become active in sport,” said WBSC Secretary General Ms. Beng Choo Low, “and that softball can serve as an attractive option as a lifelong sport because it can be enjoyed almost anywhere and by children as young as two years of age to those beyond their eighties.”

WBSC officials indicate that the World Softball Day 2015 has been set up to boost awareness that softball, along with baseball, is embraced by millions of people from diverse ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds in more the 140 nations around the world — and especially young people and females.

“With World Softball Day 2015, WBSC will continue building baseball/softball’s position together as a welcoming, inclusive and gender-balanced global sport,” said WBSC Executive Vice-President Dale McMann.

#WorldSoftballDay logo

Social Media Campaign

People of all ages can share their World Softball Day experiences and selfies via Facebook and Twitter using the official hashtag #WorldSoftballDay and tagging @WBSC.

WBSC will be actively retweeting the “best of” World Softball Day quotes, posts and images throughout the celebration.

It will also be possible for the online community to post their softball 13 June festivities directly on the wall of the Official World Softball Day event page on Facebook.

“World Softball Day will keep our sport evolving and strengthen the connection with millions of young people everywhere and with today’s youth culture, which is increasingly mobile and digital,” said Low and McMann.

In 2014, World Softball Day was one of the top trending topics on Twitter on 13 June.

Pools, Schedule Announced For 11th WBSC U19 Junior Women’s Softball World Championship

The world governing body of baseball and softball, WBSC, today announced the pools and the official competition schedule of the XI Junior Women’s Softball World Championship that will be staged from 9-15 August at the newly renovated ASA Hall of Fame Complex in the Oklahoma state capital.

The 18 nations of the 2015 WBSC Junior Women’s Softball World Championship have been delegated to their respective pools and will open the event with a group round robin:

Pool A: China, Ecuador, Great Britain, Japan, Nigeria
Pool B: Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Mexico, USA
Pool C: Argentina, Australia, Czech Republic, Puerto Rico
Pool D: Canada, Chinese Taipei, New Zealand, Venezuela

The official tournament schedule features an exciting 85 world championship contests that will be concentrated into seven days of action.

Day 1 and 2 will feature round robin action of each pool. Nations will be battling to finish among the top two in their respective groups to advance into the championship round robin (2 pools) with the remaining teams advancing to the placement robin round (2 pools).

Day 3 and 4 will see a round robin of both the championship pools and the placement pools.

Day 5 and 6 will see the championship section continue through the double page playoff with the placement section continuing through a single elimination format.

Day 7 will showcase the bronze and gold medal games.

All 18 participating National Teams will be competing on Opening Day, with action opening on Saturday, 9 August at 09:00 local time.

Opening ceremonies will begin at 18:00 at the main competition field, which will be followed by Brazil taking on hosts USA.

The gold medal game will take centre stage on Saturday, 15 August at 19:30, and will be preceded by the bronze medal match at 17:00.

“The WBSC Junior Women’s Softball World Championship in Oklahoma City will be the centre of the softball universe, providing an important global platform for the top young women’s softball players from all corners of the world,” said WBSC Softball Division President Dale McMann. “Softball continues to be a sport that connects with women and young people, as highlighted by the one of the most diverse groups of nations that will be uniting this summer at the Junior Women’s World Championship.”

Universality

The 18 nations uniting at the 11th edition of the WBSC Junior Women’s Softball World Championship represent a global footprint that spans across the globe, including North-, South- and Central America and the Caribbean, as well as Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania.

Softball’s expanding global reach will be highlighted in Oklahoma City by Ecuador and Nigeria, both of whom will be making their historic softball world championship debuts, while the Colombian National Team will be competing in the junior softball world championship for the first time ever.

WBSC Secretary General Ms. Beng Choo Low said:

“The U19 Junior Women’s Softball World Championship will be a great platform to showcase our sport’s universality, youth appeal and commitment to gender equality, particularly during this time when a potential return of baseball/softball to the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020 is under review.”

The Japanese Junior Women’s National Softball Team is the current two-time defending U19 World Champion, following Japan’s gold medal performance in Brampton, Canada in 2013, where the world No. 1 defeated USA, 4-0. Oceania’s Australia earned the bronze medal in 2013.

WBSC Junior Women’s Softball World Championship in Oklahoma City

Live-Streaming

The world championship will also have web-streaming and play-by-play available, enhancing coverage of the youth softball showcase with real-time digital content to the ever expanding global audience.

All packages to watch the tournament — both in person and through web-streaming — are available through the tournament website: 2015jwwc.com.

The U19 world championship is being hosted by ASA/USA Softball, at their headquarters, marking the first time since 1995 the event will be played on U.S. soil.

The WBSC has a full list of official events on the calendar that span from June to November which include the Men’s Softball World Championship and Pan American Games in Toronto, Canada, the U12 Baseball World Cup in Tainan, Chinese Taipei, the U18 Men’s Baseball World Cup at Koshien Stadium in Japan, and the inaugural Premier 12 co-hosted by Japan and Chinese Taipei.