More Venues Needed for Tokyo 2020 Baseball

(ATR) The World Baseball Softball Confederation tells Around the Rings it would be nearly impossible to stage the Olympic baseball and softball tournaments in just one venue.

"This isn’t a little league event," a WBSC spokesperson tells ATR in an exclusive interview. "We have to have batting practice three hours before the game, the stadium needs to be cleaned out after the game and you can really only have two games in one venue per day."

The original proposal from the WBSC to have its sports re-introduced to the Olympic program in Tokyo stipulated two venues in the Tokyo area and one venue in Fukushima. However, the IOC is pushing cost-cutting measures on the organizing committee which led to the proposal to only use a primary venue in Yokohama and a secondary venue in Fukushima.

According to the WBSC, the venue in Fukushima would only be used in a more ceremonial sense and would stage one or maybe two games during the tournament as a symbol of recovery from the devastating tsunami that hit the area in 2011.

The WBSC tells ATR the joint proposal that will be sent to the IOC this summer has yet to be finalized.

"We’re discussing everything with Tokyo 2020 directly ahead of the upcoming IOC board meeting because we have to have some details finalized to present to the IOC," the spokesperson says. "They have to review all of these things and in the next couple of weeks we have to come to an agreement with Tokyo 2020 on how the tournament is going to look."

An agreement between Tokyo 2020 and the WBSC could be hard to come by. Tokyo 2020 tells ATR its proposal for baseball and softball only includes the two venues and that it prefers a six-team group stage where the top four teams advance to semi-finals. Before being cut from the program after Beijing 2008, the Olympic baseball tournament featured eight teams in the group stage.

The IOC will receive the joint proposal in the next four to five weeks according to the WBSC. The governing body of the Olympics may be reluctant to increase athlete quotas for any sport as Tokyo 2020 will feature five more sports than the Rio 2016 Games, including baseball/softball.

As for its re-introduction to the Games, the WBSC tells ATR the IOC has been very helpful in welcoming the confederation back to the Olympic family.

"In baseball and softball we have a bit of history and we know what’s expected and what a responsibility it is to host," the spokesperson says. "The sports department is really doing a great job in helping guide us and making sure all the new sports can be delivered and organized at an Olympic standard.

"We’ve also taken on additional staff to meet these new needs and to be able to deliver what we promised to deliver in our bid."

Written by Kevin Nutley

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