Press Release Euro League Baseball
The European Association of Professional Baseball (EAPB) is pleased to announce the definite start of Euro League Baseball (ELB) in 2016. After its foundation in May 2015 a lot of developments resulted in the membership of 11 of the strongest baseball teams in Europe.
Despite EAPB’s efforts to find a way to fit a 10-team schedule in the regular domestic league schedules and to find all required funds, ELB management ran into logistic and budget obstacles that sidelined some members for the 2016 season. Ongoing talks with the Dutch Federation look promising, however pending these talks and pending a final agreement with Dutch member L&D Amsterdam, the League has to decide to field an Amsterdam based occasional team to replace L&D Amsterdam for the inaugural season. This Amsterdam team will be composed of top players and coaches from different leagues in Europe and the US.
The participating teams for 2016 will be Draci Brno, Munich-Haar Disciples, Buchbinder Legionäre Regensburg and Team Amsterdam (TBA) “We’re confident that the downsized schedule gives us the opportunity to address grassroot issues and to fine tune our organization for future expansion” says ELB President Wim van den Hurk.
ELB’s partnership with Terre des Hommes will offer great opportunities to create social responsibility events and ELB teams to become a valuable members of the local community.