Financing a national team for international tournaments, especially when it comes to travel costs, can be a very expensive proposition. So like so many start-up companies and other projects, Team Australis is looking for community support by the use of crowd funding. Here is their gofundme tweet:
National Team Travel – Softball http://t.co/CtW3ODBf99 via @gofundme Donate to your favourite player and help them fulfill their dream!
— Softball Australia (@SoftballOz) May 5, 2015
Editor’s note: Best of luck to them. Crowd funding is certainly one of the modern tools for fund raising. Regular readers of Fastpitch West will recall that crowd funding was utilized sucessfully to provide funds for a memorial tree planted in honor of the late Dave Blackburn in Santa Barbara, where he has served for more than a decade as the tournament director of the Best of the West tournament. The “indiegogo” fund raiser exceeded the established goal of $3500 for the memorial tree.
Their message:
2015 is an exciting year for Softball Australia. We are sending three national teams overseas to represent Australia in two World Championships and one national Cup.
The Aussie Steelers, Australia’s Men’s national team, is going to Canada to compete in the 2015 Men’s Softball World Championships starting 26th June. The Aussie Men won the 2009 World Softball Championship, the last time Saskatoon, Canada hosted the tournanment. They are led by the world’s #1 ranked pitcher, Adam Folkard.
The Aussie Women, CTI Aussie Spirit, are traveling to Japan to play in the 2015 Japan Cup. The Spirit are currently ranked #3 in the world. Other countries participating are #1 Japan, #2 USA and #5 China. The tournament will showcase women’s softball as the sport is vying for inclusion in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The U19 CTI Aussie Pride, is Australia’s U19 Women’s team. The Pride are headed to Oklahoma City, USA to compete in the Junior Women’s Softball World Championship starting August 7th.
Our players need your support. The men and women are taking time to represent our country on the world stage and it is player pays. Any funds donated to the team will go against the travel cost of the players.
You can make a donation to the team or an individual player. Donations close 15 August 2015.
Thank you for your support.
Go Aussie Go!!!