(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 World Port Tournament 2021 cancelled
Nederlands
 ROTTERDAM (Neth.) -
Next years 18th edition of the biennial international World Port Tournament Baseball has been cancelled.
The Organizing Committee announced on Thursday (November 26) that it had decided to cancel the event due to the current coronacrisis..
Last year, the tournament was won by the Netherlands Baseball Team, or Team Kingdom of the Netherlands as the team is also called.
A year ago, 32.000 spectators visited the event, which took place again in the Neptunus Familiestadion, the home of Dutch big leaguer Curaçao Neptunus.
The 18th edition has now been postponed to 2023.
Earlier this year, the 30th edition of the biennial international Baseball Week Haarlem also was cancelled for the same reason.
That event was postponed to 2022.
WPT Tournament Director Jan Dirk Stouten said in a statement:
,,This is a difficult and painful decision, but we cannot do otherwise under these special circumstances.
Because our participating teams come from different continents, we normally make early arrangements.
We always do that during this period, but that is not possible now because no one, as a result of the pandemic, can and wants to make a plan for next year or already want to commit to a tournament in the Netherlands''.
In the announcement, it was also mentioned that economic circumstances also play a role in the decision to cancel the event.
,,The corona crisis has led to an economic crisis'', said Arno Seltenrijch, who handles Technical & Facility Affairs in the Organizing Committee.
,,Many companies are forced to make substantial cutbacks and there are layoffs.
Many companies are cutting expenditure considerably, and therefore also the sponsor budgets.
Under these circumstances it is financially irresponsible to start organizing our tournament.
There are simply too many uncertainties.''
There are was a third reason to postpone the 18th edition.
In the announcement it is said that the third reason is the lack of clarity about the regulations for public events in the summer of 2021.
Regarding these regulations, Jan Dirk Stouten said:
,,Although there has been positive news about possible vaccines in recent days, it is completely unclear what we are doing next summer.
Can we play in a full stadium again?
Does the 1.5 meter measure still apply?
The income from the sale of entrance tickets is an important source of income for us.
We cannot say a sensible word about it in these confusing times''.
In March of this year, the WPT organisors announced that the tournament was scheduled to be held next year from June 26 through July 3.
Opposed to earlier editions, this was to be two days shorter.
Also, the Final was to be played on Saturday-evening instead of Sunday-afternoon.
Back then, Stouten stated that ''it was the wish of the organization to shorten the tournament and make it more compact''.
He continued: ,,With that we are more attractive for spectators and sponsors now that our event is two days shorter''.
Despite the shorter period, five teams were to particpate, as was the case last year.
The first edition of the World Port Tournament was held in 1985.
Back then, the Netherlands was the lone National Team that participated and that stayed that way initially.
The other teams represented harbour cities that had a connection with Rotterdam.
In later years, more and more National Teams participate.
From 1997 on, most participants were National Teams.
The first tournament with only National Teams was in 2007.
Since then, only National Teams have participated.
Since 1961, the Haarlem Baseball Week is organized in Haarlem, every two years since 1972.
In 1985, the World Port Tournament became the second big international baseball-tournament in the Netherlands.
From 1985 on, Rotterdam hosted the WPT every two years, except in 2005 when the World Championship Baseball was organized in the Netherlands.
Both the Haarlem Baseball Week and World Port Tournament were created not only to offer attractive international baseball to the Dutch baseball-fans, but also to enable the Netherlands Baseball Team to play against strong opponents and to prepare for events such as the Olympic Games, the World Championship or the European Championship.
In 2019, the Netherlands won the World Port Tourmament for the third time after earlier winning in 1989 and 1999.
(November 26)
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