BY KEVIN MITCHELL, STARPHOENIX SPORTS EDITOR
Saskatoon bid farewell to the world men’s softball championship in 2009. It didn’t take long for people to start talking about the reunion.
The 2015 world men’s softball championship has been awarded to Saskatoon, thanks in part to a very successful 2009 event that saw the hosts come away with a $200,000 legacy fund.
“We talked about it as an executive and we talked to our volunteers,” says Saskatoon Amateur Softball Association president Bryan Kosteroski, whose group is the event host. “We said, ‘What do you think of this?’ They said, ‘We can’t wait; let’s do it.’ So it’s coming back to Saskatoon.
“There’s a lot of history. You have a lot of years from a lot of people working on the organizing committees and volunteering. We have a huge, huge pool of volunteer and knowledge assets, where a lot of centres would struggle with that.”
Saskatoon also successfully hosted the 2002 world women’s championship, which doubled as an Olympic qualifier.
This time around, the International Softball Federation approached the Saskatoon group and asked if it would be interested in applying to host. It didn’t take much prodding.
The championship is held on a two-year rotation, with New Zealand hosting in 2013.
Twelve to 16 countries are expected to play in Saskatoon in 2015.
Kosteroski said Saskatoon’s ability to attract softball crowds and to generate a surplus make it a top destination for big-ticket events. The $200,000 surplus from 2009 has allowed the association to provide funding for a variety of things, including $30,000 for uniforms for kids aged five to eight and $8,000 towards pitching machines for young players. It has also been able to put money into facility upgrades.