Baseball Must Replicate Premier12 Success at Tokyo 2020

(ATR) World Baseball Softball Confederation president Riccardo Fraccari says the success of the Premier12 baseball tournament in Japan demonstrates the sport belongs in the Olympic Movement.

"We had more than 2500 hours of tv coverage at the Premier12," Fraccari tells Around the Rings. "I think if we are able to repeat the numbers with the Premier12 in Japan, we show all of the signs that we should remain in the program."

At the inaugural Premier12 tournament in November, 12 of the best teams in the world faced off in a round-robin tournament. South Korea won the tournament on Nov. 21 over the top-seeded U.S. team. The tournament’s broadcast reached approximately 253 million people and generated an estimated $131 million of brand exposure, according to the WBSC.

"If we are able to show the [IOC] and ensure that we are able to increase the number of television coverage hours, we will fulfill the reason why we were accepted on the program," Fraccari says.

WBSC is one of five International Federations seeking to showcase its sport at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Games as an addition to the 28 sports already on the program. The IOC will determine whether baseball and softball, sport climbing, roller sports, karate and surfing will join the Tokyo 2020 program at the IOC Session in Rio de Janeiro prior to the start of the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Fraccari thanked the IOC for extending this opportunity with the implementation of Olympic Agenda 2020.

"We have to recognize the flexibility of the Olympic program and the vision of Thomas Bach as the reasons we have this opportunity," Fraccari tells ATR.

He says the popularity of the sport in the host country gives him confidence baseball and softball will be approved by the IOC.

"Baseball and softball is the number one sport in Japan, so the [IOC] saw what is able to be achieved at the tournament in November and I think for Tokyo 2020 it can be important to have baseball and softball in the program," he tells ATR. "I am quite positive because the numbers show that we are able to bring a plus to the program. "

Fraccari says the Olympic program needs to have at least one bat and ball sport and that the federation is not content with just being added to the Tokyo Olympics.

"There are 1.5 billion people in the world that play bat and ball sports. We want to be able to show what it means to have baseball and softball in the Olympic program."

When asked if the federation had been in contact with any of the bidding cities to host the 2024 Olympics, Fraccari told ATR the WBSC is only focused on the Tokyo 2020 Games at this time.

"We have not been approached by any of the cities, no," he says. "We are focused really to be present in 2020 and show in that we can be a success to the Games by showing a lot of attendance and selling a lot of tickets."

Written by Kevin Nutley

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