World Baseball Challenge Under Review
Sunday, September 15, 2013 @ 5:28 AM
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Cuba bats against USA at 2013 World Baseball Challenge at Citizen Field. Photo 250 News archive
Prince George, B.C. – The people who brought the 2013 World Baseball Challenge to Prince George last month are preparing to conduct a review of the event to see where things stand.
The WBC Organizing Committee’s Chair of Team Recruitment, Jim Swanson, says now that Citizen Field has been cleared and items physically removed and returned, the 34 members of the WBC Society will be meeting in the coming week or so to hash over the outcome of this tournament. “We’ve done that every time so it’s no different.” (The tournament previously ran here in 2009 and 2011). It has been noted that attendance was down this year compared to 2011 but Swanson says “at the end it isn’t necessarily the number (of fans) it’s revenues and that’s the thing that’s important. I think we’re in pretty good shape.”
Swanson says “all of the positions on the WBC board are up for people wanting to continue it. I know for myself, we’ve put five major tournaments on in Prince George plus kids camps and I’ve chaired all eight of them basically and a pretty safe question is, how many more do you want to do. But that doesn’t mean somebody else doesn’t want to step up because I know that there’s a huge hunger within our group. I think everybody sees the value in it, I don’t know how you can’t see the value in this event to this community.”
Regarding the need to approach the city for financial support for the tournament, Swanson says “the City supported to the tune of $90,000 for the first one (2009), $50,000 for the second one and $10,000 for the third one. So, you could say there’s been an $80,000 offload, and after they supported us $10,000 they sent us a bill for $11,000. So $10,000 isn’t a very big part of our budget. The community did step forward, there’s no question or else we wouldn’t have gone ahead. The fact that we went public was just part of us and the committee saying we needed to be prudent. There have been other events in the community that have become detractions from the community financially and have left behind a stain, and we haven’t done that.”
Swanson says the tournament is a great money-maker for city businesses. He says “the Taiwanese team spent $30,000 in retail alone in the first six days they were in town. They walked into Roots Canada and dropped $6,000 in one quick shopping spree that lasted about 40 minutes. You had the Cubans that we made a bus available to them to go around and buy TVs, bicycles, laptops, they went around and they spent a lot of money. And that’s after walking around selling jerseys and T-shirts and cigars and things they brought with them so they had the money to do that. And it was a real give and take with the community.”
Swanson says the World Baseball Challenge is a community effort put on by volunteers, many of them not even baseball people. “People are involved because they want to see this happen for the community. So I think there’s something to be said for what has been accomplished by the group. When we went forward to the community and said that we were in a position that there had been some challenges, the community stepped forward and we’re very thankful for that. We’re glad that we were able to make it work this year and I think that overall there’s a desire and hunger to continue to see the event go every two years.” Swanson says the revenues generated to the ball park are “a huge part of what is required to pull off the event. We had good crowds, you also wants bigger crowds no question, but even if you were sold out you’d wish you had more seats to sell.”
This year’s tournament wound up being a 5-team affair as the Bahamas had to withdraw at the last minute. That left Cuba, Chinese Taipei, Japan, the U.S. and Canada in the competition. But Swanson doesn’t believe the event suffered. “Canada had a rough start to the tournament and never recovered. The USA finished third, Chinese Taipei fourth, Japan second and Cuba first. But you know what, one of the things we’re proud of is we are yet to have a team come to the World Baseball Challenge and leave with a perfect record. Everybody’s left with at least one loss, and when you put on a baseball tournament and Chinese Taipei finishes fourth, it’s a pretty good tournament.”
“Would it help to have Canada win a couple of games? Ya sure and nobody was more disappointed than them that they didn’t win any games but they were in a number of games right to the end. I think Canada’s record (0 and 7) in more of an indication of how strong the other teams were.” But would you like to see more teams involved? “We invite about 40 different nations every time, and at the end of the day we had five of the top six ranked countries in the world here. I don’t know how we could do it any better.”
Swanson doesn’t think the future of the tournament will be decided next week. “What we’re going to do is have a wind-up meeting and probably determine the next executive group that’s going to go forward. It’ll be up to that executive group, whether I’m on it or not, there’s 34 of us that vote and that’s the way it works. Part of me wonders, after doing two nationals and three World Baseball Challenges as a chair, if maybe it’s time for me to spend some time doing some other stuff. But if there’s some people willing to take on more of it I’m still willing to work on recruiting the teams and working with the nations that come here. I’ve been the contact for that and I’m glad to be that.”
Comments
Got to hand it to Swanson for his record pushing the ball forward. I am not into baseball and find it boring, but I think the tournament was good for the city. Its rare that PG has international teams competing in our city for any sporting event that I am aware of, so the exposure can’t hurt.
” isn’t necessarily the number (of fans)it’s revenue and that’s the thing that is important” —- really?
Why not lower the admission price a little and attract more fans and maybe the revenue will even increase.
I have to think that if they want support from the city attendance is an important factor
“and after they supported us $10,000 they sent us a bill for $11,000”
Hmmmm……
“Why not lower the admission price a little and attract more fans”
Seriously? The family pass is $25. Thats half the price of even going to a movie even. Or is this one more thing that people refuse tax funding for but expect to have available to them for free?
Kudos to the organizers of the WBC. They were still able to make it happen when they were faced with a huge funding shortfall. Considering what PG is putting out in order to host the Canada Games, assisting the function of the WBC is not a big deal.. is it? This event gives our city some positive international exposure, creates revenue for many businesses, and helps justify the upkeep of another one of our sports complexes. There will always be those who believe that we should keep a tight hold on our purse strings, but in the end you have to spend money to make money. IMO the WBC does not pose an unjustified drain upon our economy.
I fully support the WBC and the hard work of some extremely dedicated people. It really is a fantastic event for our little northern town. I was just questioning the new city hall style of economics. Give some, but take more in return.
Swanson and team have done a stellar job of hosting the WBC in PG over the years and I wish the team all the best in the future. With the intense focus being on the CWG since 2010 combined with the imposed 5 yr pre games tax levy I’m not surprised to learn that attendance at the WBC games is down and the City’s contribution to the WBC has decreased……We are seeing a decrease in financial contributions from the general population all across PG and in all sectors. With the continued annual increases in property taxes, a 46% increase in utility fees and rising and an increase in user fees across the board I know our family is maxed out…. We have no money left over to donate to sports, social services, the arts, or even to buy tickets to attend some of the activities we currently sponsor.
Good point middle finger..
Here’s money so we look good… But we want more back.. Don’t we look great
How can green sleep at night????
Interceptor, I was able to find the admission prices and you are right — individual game passes were quite reasonable. I am surprised that the attendance was not better considering the level of baseball.
Why shouldn’t they be charged to use the facility? Every other person in the city would be if they wanted ice time, field time, to run some laps at the NSC, etc.
“It has been noted that attendance was down this year compared to 2011…”
I thought they blamed 2011’s poor attendance on the bad weather. What was the reason this time?
I do think it’s a good event, but maybe PG and region doesn’t have enough people who are baseball fans to support it fully. I intended to go this year, but found other things to do while the weather was nice.
I came in from out of town to watch the tournament. I found the overall atmosphere of the tournament great – the food, the volunteers, the games (except when canada screwed up so many times), and the true friendliness of the players. I had no problem paying the cost of admission and will do so again in the future.
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