Prince George, B.C. – The World Baseball Challenge did not win the Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance  Prestige Award for the International Sport Event of 2011. 

Although a finalist in that category, the award was given to  the 2011 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship held in Regina, Saskatchewan.  The awards were handed out this afternoon in Richmond.

 

The other category which had a Prince George connection was the Community Service Award. Jim Swanson of Prince George, who was one of the key players in bringing the World Baseball Challenge to P.G.,   was one of three finalists,  He did not win, but is tickled Prince George was even considered given the quality of the competition “We were up against the World Men’s Curling and Grand Prix of Figure Skating, two huge events which have a huge television audience, so I am pretty pleased we were finalists.”

 

Swanson also says he is not disappointed in not getting the nod for Community Service “It (the world baseball challenge) isn’t about one person. We have a core committee of 33 people and 300 volunteers who all work very hard, and don’t collect a dime for it, all because they want Prince George to   host this event. I think that’s pretty rewarding in itself.”

 

The Toronto Blue Jays Baseball Club was also a finalist for it’s sponsorship role in the World Baseball Challenge, but did not come out on top. 

 

The Canadian Sport Tourism Alliance is a tourism industry-led organization that promotes sport tourism as an economic driver at the community level. The CSTA services over 300 members across Canada, including 125 municipalities, 150 national and provincial sport, multi-sport and major games organizations and variety of other national and provincial sport and tourism industry partners.