By: Melissa Verge
The top baseball players in the world will be in Canada next week to take the field for a World Cup that almost didn’t happen.
For months, the outcome of the WBSC Women’s Baseball World Cup Finals - which gives the best players across the country a purpose, and young girls a tangible goal to strive for - was uncertain due to a lack of funding.
It was a generous $300,000 contribution from Baseball Canada, and many long hours from the staff, that ensured the event was still able to take place in Thunder Bay. Applications for $300,000 in funding from the federal government were initially declined in 2023 and 2024. After a lot of back and forth, they received $75,000, said Baseball Canada CEO Jason Dickson, but they were still very short, putting not only the World Cup in jeopardy as there was no other host, but the entire Women’s National Team program. The program has been around since 2004.
“If Canada doesn’t host the group stage qualifier (in 2023) and the World Cup Finals this year, we have no competition those years and we lose any momentum that we have going in women’s baseball. This could potentially kill the women's program forever,” Dickson said.
In 2022, the first stage of qualifiers for the Women’s Baseball World Cup took place in Venezuela featuring countries from the Americas. Due to travel restrictions, Canada and the United States were prevented from competing, so the Thunder Bay International Baseball Association stepped up in hosting both nations for a five-game Friendship Series.
The event was the first international baseball competition for both countries since 2019 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Thunder Bay was then awarded hosting rights for the group stage (2023) and final round (2024) of the Women’s Baseball World Cup.
At the group stage 2023, the Thunder Bay International Baseball Association host committee ran a deficit of $250,000, and this year, it’s Baseball Canada who has taken the hit.
It’s a first for their organization. They've never had to back an international event, because it’s always been funded. It shouldn’t be up to a national body to step up to this extent, he said, and the contribution isn't something they can do annually. It's once in a decade, he said. Although it takes up a chunk of their budget, the alternative was not an option. The alternative was no World Cup.
“This was not going to happen, there was going to be no competition for our team and potentially others,” he said. “But for us it meant a lot and the decision was simple. We just said, ‘this can’t happen, we’re going to figure out a way to do it.’”
Figuring it out meant a lot of long phone calls spread out over many hours between himself and Baseball Canada’s Adam Morissette who oversees the operations for the women’s program. It was a lot of people who cared deeply and invested heavily, he said, that would not take no for an answer.
But it’s even deeper and more monumental than the week-long tournament coming up. Having female role models to look up to on the field is vital for girls' participation in the sport in the future.
Studies have shown that children start to rule out career options from an early age, and what they view as attainable is often what they see depicted in media.
That’s why hosting the World Cup in Canada is important, because it shows young girls in the country just what is possible, he said.
“You have to see it if you want to be it, or believe in it. There has to be an opportunity for young athletes to see their role models,” Dickson said.
Since 2005 - a year after the Women’s National Team was created - to 2023, the number of female players across the country has doubled. In 2005, there were just under 13,000 registered, as reported to Baseball Canada from the 10 provincial associations. In 2023, that number was nearly 27,000.
The interest is there, but they also need the support. It’s critical for sponsors and government to step up, Dickson said. Individuals can also step up by purchasing tickets to the World Cup. It will ensure women and girls across the country continue to have the opportunities they deserve in baseball, role models to look up to, and push towards a more inclusive future.
Baseball Canada has backed the program, and now they need the help of government and sponsors to ensure it continues.
“Baseball is definitely an uphill battle on the women’s side, but you know, I just think our commitment to it has shown that we’re in it for the fight,” he said.
“But we’re going to need more help.”
