by IBAF, www.ibaf.org
World Port Tournament: Growth against bad economic tides
Everything is ready for the start of the 12th World Port Tournament, the major international baseball tournament starting on July 2nd in Rotterdam. With a strong field of participants and a record number of sponsors, the tournament promises to be successful, both from a sportive as a commercial perspective. On Wednesday Jacques van Steen, President of Rotterdam Baseball, Robert Eenhoorn, Technical Director of the KNBSB, and Rod Delmonico, Coach of the Dutch National Baseball Team, looked forward towards the 2009 World Port Tournament.
Commercial and Organizational optimism
“Looking at the tournament from a commercial and organizational point of view, we are doing very well”, said Jacques van Steen, “almost every company that supported us as commercial partner in 2007 stayed with us. Next to that we have been able to find a big number of new partners for the event.” The organizing committee is right on schedule for the start of the 12th edition of the World Port Tournament. Jacques van Steen: “Ticket sales are doing very well, equaling the sales of the 2007 edition when we had over 60.000 baseball fans and families for the tournament. For this edition we have added a number of new items, which should make the event even more fitting for families.”
Cuba goes for Gold
The first participant to send in the team roster was Cuba. The Cubans obviously have only one thing on their mind, winning the tournament and defending their title. Robert Eenhoorn: “The Cuban selection is a mix of players we have seen in the World Baseball Classic and Olympics and talented youngsters that are being prepared for the Cuban National Team.” USA Baseball has proposed an All Star Team from the Great South League as its representative. Robert Eenhoorn: “USA Baseball has indicated that this team will be a worthy representative for the USA and that they will be able to be competitive for our other participants. Due to the fact that this league, which is being played in six states, is a cradle of talent, we obviously have a lot of confidence in the judgment of USA Baseball.”
Japan, just like in 2007, shows up with a team full of young talent. Remarkable for the Japanese team is the fact that a lot of players from the 2007 roster have now joined professional leagues. We will definitely hear more of the 2009 team in the future. Taiwan, runner-up in 2007, shows up with a team that will participate in the international tournaments that are to be held in the rest of 2009. Robert Eenhoorn: “Both our Asian participants are known for their very organized and well executed baseball. On top of that baseball is the most popular sport in both countries, so they can both select from a very large pool of talented young players. In general I can add that the World Port Tournament is a fantastic tournament, in which a large number of countries would like to participate. This definitely shows from the participants presented today.”
Dutch National Team
The team roster of the Dutch national team was announced this week. National team Coach Rod Delmonico: “There is no doubt that we want to win the tournament. We will participate with a very strong selection. At this point we are busy adding a number of young players to the selection, for whom the World Port Tournament is a great opportunity to prove themselves at the highest level. Playing aggressively, we should definitely be able to create opportunities to win our games. We are looking forward to start the tournament.”
All information regarding the 12th World Port Tournament can be found at www.worldporttournament.nl