More on the Euro League Baseball
The other day I spoke to someone about the newly erected Euro League Baseball. This person told me a couple of things that I would like to share with you. It is mainly about the reason behind the decision to start this league.
The reason for establishing the league and the governing body before everything was engraved in stone, was that it is very hard to negotiate with all parties (European Baseball Confederation, national baseball federations/unions, clubs and potential sponsors) if there is no official organization that is powered to make arrangements.
The reason why L&D Amsterdam Pirates isn’t part of the two Dutch teams was based on the following. The European Association of Professional Baseball (EAPB for short) contacted Curacao Neptunus first. The intention was to contact L&D Amsterdam Pirates as well, but a rumor about the sponsor made the EAPB decide to contact Vaessen Pioniers. It seems to be that the sponsor of Pirates, L&D Support, is slowly pulling back as their main sponsor and that the club has not found a new one yet. With this background, it may very well be that Pirates does not dare to participate right now because of the lack of funds, which would be a wise decision of course. I would like to emphasize that it is a rumor. I don’t know if it is true or not. Perhaps the EAPB should have contacted Pirates first to hear it from the club itself. But the decision has been made and you cannot undo it anymore. The main goal was to have two teams per participating country, so with Pioniers and Neptunus representing the Netherlands, it would create a strange and awkward situation for the other countries: Why does the Netherlands have more than two teams, when we can only have two?
The future of the game of baseball in the Netherlands is rather bleak. The game didn’t attract more kids after the Dutch won the World Championship in 2011. Neither did it after the good performance of the Dutch team during the 2013 World Baseball Classic. Somehow, when a Dutch team in another sport performs this well, it always has an impact on people, resulting in more members for the clubs. Somehow with baseball it doesn’t work this way. Is this because the Dutch baseball and softball federation has not advertised the successes good enough? Is it because the game is too difficult to understand for outsiders (baseball has this reputation to deal with in the Netherlands….)? I don’t know. But fact is that there are less children playing the game than 20 years ago.
So is it a wise decision to start a professional baseball league in Europe? It is hard to tell. The professional baseball league in Italy (IBL) has a hard time to stay afloat. A powerhouse in Italian baseball, Nettuno, is playing with two teams to maintain a league with an even number of teams. A weird situation. If a pro league in one country hardly can survive, will a Europane professional league have a long life to live? If baseball in Europe wants to survive, something has to be done.
Of course there is a chance that the league will nerver lift off. Of course there is a chance that this league will fold after one or two seasons, but again, something has to be done.
The only way to make children play baseball is to introduce them to the game itself. What better way is there than to do this by letting them attend a game with a minor league atmosphere, with between innings entertainment and with attention for the fans? But then again there is a but…. If games of the ELB will be played on week days, at what time will they start? The little kids cannot attend games at night time because of their bed time perhaps. A solution needs to be found for that. But if you can lure kids to the ballpark and play some games on the field between the innings and you let them run the bases, you can
bet that they will like it. Promotional activities like minor league clubs have, may help too. But all of this needs to be promoted. All of this needs to be advertised (on TV?). This will cost a lot of money but with a name of a company linked to the league this may be possible. One thing is sure in my humble opinion, the clubs that participate in the ELB need to be advertised as THE representatives of their country in order to attract fans nation wide.
Baseball in Europe needs an impulse. It needs to get bigger than the traditional strongholds like Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Haarlem, Rouen, Regensburg, Barcelona and Nettuno. Of course not every baseball club in Europe can participate in the ELB. But if this league will be a success, it may be an initiator for the sport to grow again. And the smaller clubs can benefit from it as well.
People preparing for a between innings game at the Las Vegas 51s, back in 2012 when I attended a game at Cashman Field.