From RadioLIVE/3 News
The sports have combined to form the World Baseball-Softball Confederation to try and gain inclusion in the 2020 Olympic Games.
The merger is no threat to New Zealand Softball says General Manager Dane Dougan.
“It’s purely for an Olympic bid so if the baseball-softball combination doesn’t get into the Olympics, my understanding is this will all be reconsidered in terms of the merger,” says Dougan. “Basically the merger is purely for an Olympic bid at this time.”
Dougan is also confident softball will remain New Zealand’s preferred discipline.
“We’ve got to put things into perspective a little bit,” says Dougan, “We’ve got 30,000 players playing softball in this country with two-thirds of them male, so we actually have a fairly attractive product.”
The merger won’t have any affect on the Softball World Champs being held in New Zealand in March next year.
RadioLIVE/3 News
One could be foolled into thinking things look pretty good for the sport with 30,000 players. Yet Softball NZ axes coaching at a national level leaving those in Otago and Southland without national level pitching and catching coaches?
Yes good move. Bad decisions like that should be rememberd when numbers start to drop off. Preferred discipline? Times are changing.