april2013

World Baseball Softball Confederation

April 6, 2013

ISF

 

 

To: The Worldwide Softball Community


Fr: Don Porter, President, International Softball Federation,
CoPresident
World Baseball Softball Confederation

 


Re: Update on WBSC Olympic Campaign & Upcoming Tokyo Launch

 


... Dear Friends:
The campaign to return Baseball and Softball to the Olympic Games just entered the 6th inning. And
we’re preparing to swing for the fences. But we need your help!


We have two significant milestones just ahead of us in our pitch to the IOC.


First, to get you up to date. The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and the International Softball
Federation (ISF) merged to form the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). We then presented
as one organization to the IOC Programme Commission in December.


Next week, we’re going to launch our campaign publicly in Tokyo at the Congress of the IBAF. On
Sunday, April 14th, we’re going to introduce our new logo, theme, and web site ‐
www.playball2020.com ‐ which we’re keeping under wraps for now.

 


Batter Up: Get Ready to Join the Line Up in our Social Media Drive


Our launch event will include a number of rising stars and legends from the Japanese and international
Baseball and Softball community. And it will begin a global media push to drive everyone to our new
website to join the line up and click in their support.


Social media will be very important. This is where we need your help. We need you to help spread the
word; get your friends, family, and friends of friends, etc. to join our line up on our website, like us and
share our posts on Facebook, and follow us and retweet our messages on Twitter. We need everybody
in the world showing their support for our campaign.


Taking Our Story to the IOC Executive Board at SportAccord
And then on May 29th at SportAccord in St Petersburg, Russia, the WBSC will make a 20 minute
presentation to the IOC Executive Board followed by a brief Q&A session.


Our delegation will be led by Riccardo Fraccari, my WBSC co‐president and President of the IBAF, and
me.


We’re in the process of preparing a great presentation with the full support of MLB’s digital and film
graphics team in NYC.


We’ll be making a compelling argument that Baseball and Softball can deliver a greater range of value
propositions and benefits to the Olympic Movement worldwide than any other sport in consideration.


• Two disciplines on one field – baseball field converted to softball
• Eight teams each playing over six days, men followed by women


The WBSC offers the Olympic Movement the best of both worlds, which we call “Two Disciplines with
One Dream.” As you know, no two disciplines blanket the world as do Men’s Baseball and Women’s
Softball – we’ve got it covered in every respect – gender equity, participation levels, organizations
structure, fan appreciation and commercial appeal.


And when you add in the very real growth potential for our sport, no one can touch us. We’re offering a
vision and plan to give every boy and girl in the world a chance to play our game. And we need the
inspiration of the Olympic Games to get there.


So get ready to join this great campaign with us. Watch for the news out of Tokyo on April 14th and get
ready to lead all of your friends and family, softball players and fans to our new web site to help get
Softball and Baseball back in the Olympic Games.


If you have any questions or would like more information, please write to us at info@ISFsoftball.org.
Don Porter

 

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