(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 No Baseball Week Haarlem in 2018!
Nederlands
 HAARLEM (Neth.) -
There will be no 29th Baseball Week Haarlem in 2018!
On Thursday-evening (December 15), the Organizing Committee of the bi-annual, international event announced that it will not start preparations for the 29th edition in 2018, due to financial problems.
This past Summer, in July, the Netherlands Baseball Team won the 28th edition of the event, which was a successful tournament sportively seen.
In the budget for the event, the estimated amount of income from sponsors had to be made.
Unfortunately, despite a lot of work, the Organizing Committee didn't succeed in doing so.
With that, a financial problem arose.
Due to this financial situation, the Organizing Committee found it unjustified to start preparations for the tournament in 2018.
,,It was simply unjustified'', stated Tournament President Frits Mulder
,,With pain in our heart, we had to decide to dissolve the Foundation Baseball Week.
The Organizing Committee will be dissolved.''
On Thursday-evening, the contributors to the tournament were informed of the decision.
Most of them worked for the event for many, many years.
...The Netherlands wins the Baseball Week this year...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
This decision doesn't necessarily means the end of the historic international invitation tournament that brought thousands of baseball-fans to the stadium every two years and is a showpiece of Dutch baseball since 1961.
The current Foundation Baseball Week has been dissolved and the current Organizing Committee will step down.
However, in coming months, it could be possible that a new Foundation could be created and a new Organizing Committee could be ensembled.
When that happens, they could be able to organize a tournament after all in 2018.
Maybe in a smaller setting, with a team less, fewer playing days, etc.
Maybe a tournament with the participation of European teams only.
However, the keywords are of course MONEY and SPONSORING!
The first Haarlem Baseball Week was organized in 1961.
Since 1963, the event was held at the Pim Mulier Stadium in Haarlem.
Since 1972, the Haarlem Baseball Week was organized every two years.
The lone exception in this period was 1986 when the World Championship was organized for the first time in the Netherlands.
(December 15)
(more later)
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