{"id":21123,"date":"2013-06-11T08:34:45","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T15:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=21123"},"modified":"2013-06-11T08:36:31","modified_gmt":"2013-06-11T15:36:31","slug":"surrey-seeks-support-in-bid-for-2016-womens-world-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=21123","title":{"rendered":"Surrey seeks support in bid for 2016 Women’s World Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cap tip Bob Henning<\/em>
\n
\nBy Nick Greenizan – Peace Arch News<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Click<\/a>
Click logo for original news story and photos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>Organizers of the Canadian Open Fastpitch International Championship have their sights set on hosting an even bigger tournament in South Surrey \u2013 and now they need the community to get behind the plan, too.<\/p>\n

The city is aiming to host the 2016 ISF Women\u2019s World Championship after being named as Canada\u2019s bid city back in February. The bid committee \u2013 headed up by Gregg Timm and Chuck Westgard \u2013 will find out if they\u2019ve been chosen after giving a presentation to more than 130 delegates at the International Softball Federation Congress when it convenes Oct. 21-26 in Cartagena, Colombia.<\/p>\n

Members of the organizing group will also travel to the Czech Republic to give a presentation to delegates, similar to the one they\u2019ll deliver in Colombia.<\/p>\n

Timm, the chair of the Canadian Open tournament \u2013 which, including its predecessor, the Canada Cup, enters its 20th running later this month \u2013 said the idea to bid on the 2016 event came came as a result of the tournament being changed to an \u201copen\u201d event; previously, teams had to qualify regionally to gain entry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just thought, with our expertise in running our open tournament, and the fact that we\u2019ve had a lot of these countries in our event previously \u2013 teams like Spain, Denmark and Indonesia, which would never otherwise qualify \u2013 we just thought, \u2018we can do this,\u2019\u201d Timm said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re used to hosting teams like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not quite clear what other nations will be bidding on the event, though Timm expects both Chinese-Taipei and South Africa to be among the contenders. Considering his group\u2019s experience, Timm called his bid committee \u201cvery well polished\u201d in comparison to competing bids.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of depth in our organization,\u201d he added. \u201cFrom hospitality, to hosting, to things on the business side.\u201d<\/p>\n

The entire cost to run the event \u2013 including funding the bid process \u2013 is estimated to be $1.2 million. As such, the organizing committee is seeking community involvement in all types of areas, from corporate sponsorship and donations, to philanthropic donations from individuals, to engagement from service groups and others of that ilk who could help with hosting or accommodations of visiting teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking for assistance from people who have interest in community events, in supporting sports, in helping young women \u2013 and there\u2019s lots of opportunities for these young athletes that come out of playing in a major event like this,\u201d Timm said.<\/p>\n

In-kind donations are also welcome, Westgard added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to fix (Softball City) up a little bit, to the tune of probably a million dollars,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to work to improve the fields, pave the parking lots \u2013 stuff like that that can help us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Timm said the group\u2019s motto, of sorts, is \u201ca little bit, from a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo help, no donation is too small \u2013 everything helps,\u201d Westgard said.<\/p>\n

If their bid is successful, the tournament would be held July 16-26, 2016, and would essentially take the place of the international women\u2019s division of the Canadian Open that year; the Open\u2019s youth tournaments would still be held around the same time.<\/p>\n

And though the bid is not yet won, and the tournament is still more than three years away, Timm said he is already energized by the possibilities \u2013 and he\u2019s not alone, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve done our tournament for 20 years now, and it can sometimes get to be sort of a \u2018yeah, yeah, yeah\u2019 kind of thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the idea of hosting a world championship is new. I\u2019ve personally talked to people who used to be involved with the (Canadian Open), or people who I never could quite convince to get involved, and now they\u2019re saying, \u2018wow, that\u2019s going to be fun.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He envisions the event not just as a top-notch fast pitch tournament, but as something more.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t just want to run a tournament, we want to run a party here for 10 days. We want a cultural event.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recruiting teams, Timm and Westgard said they\u2019ve got people working to gain commitments from the usual fastpitch powerhouses \u2013 most of which have played at Canadian Opens before \u2013 as well as from countries in African and the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaces where females maybe don\u2019t get a lot of opportunities for something like this,\u201d Timm said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeams don\u2019t have to come thinking they\u2019re going to win the world championships, they just have to come thinking they\u2019re going to participate, be treated fairly, have a great time and be part of a community celebration.\u201d<\/p>\n

The largest-ever world championship was held in Newfoundland in 1994, when 28 teams took part.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that means we need at least 29,\u201d said Westgard.<\/p>\n

Anyone interested in supporting the world championship bid in any way can contact the Canadian Open Fastpitch office at 604-536-9287, or find information online at www.canadianopenfastpitch.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cap tip Bob Henning By Nick Greenizan – Peace Arch News Organizers of the Canadian Open Fastpitch International Championship have their sights set on hosting an even bigger tournament in South Surrey \u2013 and now they need the community to get behind the plan, too. The city is aiming to host the 2016 ISF Women\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"category-women","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21123"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21127,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21123\/revisions\/21127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}