The Belgian Baseball and Softball set the competition format from 2009 till at least 2012 a few weeks before Christmas. They will start each new season on the second weekend in April, unless Easter falls on this date. This means that the 2009 season begins on the weekend of April 18 and 19. Games are scheduled for 15.30 CET on Saturdays and Sundays.
They also changed the format of the First Division slightly in comparison to 2008. They are going to play a double round robin regular season with a total of 28 games. Afterwards the top four clubs (2008: six teams) advance into a playoff round, which also consist of a double round robin, leading to an additional twelve games. The top two teams after this phase advance into the Belgian Series, which will start on the first weekend in October.
The bottom four clubs take part in a similar play down round with the eighth-ranked club getting relegated directly. The seventh has to play a best-of-three relegation series against the second best team from the 2nd Division in Belgium.
The last game day of the round robin phases is going to be held on the weekend of September 26 and 27. Rainouts or other postponements of games do not lead to rescheduling and these matches will be considered as not played and so will not be eligible for classification.
The Federation in Belgium doesn’t have confirmed the playing field for 2009 yet, as clubs in all divisions have time till January 15 to register their teams for the upcoming season. But after the results from 2008, these should be the eight teams in the 1st Division:
Port of Antwerp Greys (2008 Champion)
Hoboken Pioneers
Mortsel Stars
Namur Angels
Brasschaat Braves
Borgerhout Squirrels
Merchtem Cats
Brussels Kangaroos