The Thunder Bay International Baseball Association (TBIBA) now has seven months to strengthen its bid for the 2010 World Junior AAA Championships.
The International BAseball Federation (IBAF), who was expected to make a decision on the location of 2010 World Juniors last week, deferred the matter to its next meeting, which will be held in November.
Although Thunder Bay is currently the only city to have entered a bid, TBIBA Executive Director Warren Philp says there’s no reason why TBIBA shouldn’t take advantage of the extra time to make its bid even more appealing to international officials.
“We will continue to work closely with Baseball Canada to keep our bid current in order to pout forward the best proposal possible to host the 2010 event,” said Philp. “We believe that the time we have, in light of the deferral, will work in our favour by allowing us to make our bid look better.”
A joint effort between the City of Thunder Bay and the Northwoods Baseball League’s Thunder Bay BorderCats will create capital improvements for the Port Arthur Stadium, where the championship would be held. In addition, the Thunder Bay Baseball Association has obtained funding from the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund to enhance game and practice facilities at Baseball Central.
“What’s great about Baseball Central is that we can have everything going on at the same place,” said Philp. “Everything from games to training camps to practices can be held in one location which makes things a lot easier for everybody.”
Baseball Canada awarded the TBIBA the opportunity to present its bid to the IBAF during the national organization’s Annual General Meeting in November 2005. If Thunder Bay earns the right to host the World Junior Championships in 2010 it will mark the 11th time the event was awarded to Canada. Canada last hosted the championship in 2002 when Cuba beat Chinese Taipei to win gold in Sherbrooke, Qué.
