Squad to play for new deals
will be made up of players released by the Korea Baseball Organisation, or players aspiring to reach the KBO signings announced in late August
will arrive in Geelong late October to start a twoweek training camp leading into the start of the ABL season this year
play out of Geelong Baseball Centre, which will also receive an upgrade
Korea will administer the team. While the majority of the team’s coaching staff will come from Korea, the club is looking at adding some Australians to its staff 40 of the team’s regular season games — 20 of those in Geelong — will be broadcast live into Korea and across Asia. More than 8 million spectators attend South Korea’s national KBO professional league each year. Streaming of GeelongKorea games could be expected to reach an audience of at least 2 million kicks off on November 15
is on to find Geelong-Korea a nickname, logo and colours. Names including the Waves and Phoenix are on the drawing board as potential brands
Korea will play in the ABL’s Southwest Division, against Adelaide Bite, Melbourne Aces and Perth Heat to Baseball Australia, there are 1898 “full active members” in the Geelong Baseball Association. The number includes coaches, club support staff and volunteers, although many of these have dual roles.
number of unique players at the 12 clubs in the Geelong league is closer to 600. This includes about 150 juniors CONCERNS Geelong-Korea could comprise a second-rate team of retirees hanging on for an all-expenses paid holiday are off the mark, according to Baseball Australia chief Cam Vale.
These are the murmurs among those who have been at the coalface of the elite levels of the game, many who feel they still have something to offer the sport in a time of expansion.
Vale insists the players who take the park will have a point to prove.
“One of the examples I’d give, relating it to the Cats, I’d say there will be players like a Steve Johnson. Maybe their professional club is telling them their time might be up, but they believe there’s another couple of years in them and their performance in the ABL is going to be critical,” he said.
Vale insists the Australian money going into the franchise is minimal beyond what will go into boosting infrastructure at an already outstanding Geelong Baseball Centre.
As with the established franchises, it puts the players’ earnings down to Winterball Korea’s marketing and sponsorship potential, although any big payday only exists if the players hit the expectations of their counterparts back home.
“If they’re not performing at a really high level in the ABL, it’s going to be pretty hard to convince a KBO professional team to take them on,” Vale said.
“They’re fighting to get another year in a professional league and it’s worth a lot of money to those players.”