Coast strikes out with ABL change

GOLD Coast Baseball Association president Ian Herd says the Australian Baseball League’s international expansion presents a “conundrum” for the grassroots game as it fights for its place in the national sporting landscape.

The ABL created history this week with the announcement a maiden international side, from South Korea, would join the six-team competition for the 2018-19 season beginning late this year.

Baseball Australia chief executive Cam Vale said the entry of Winterball Korea was “exciting for all parties”, with all 40 of their regular season games to be televised live into Korea with an expected audience of one million per fixture.

However, Herd (pictured) said there were mixed emotions at community level, where funding and resources remain in short supply.

“It’s a bit of a conundrum. From our perspective on the Coast, we would obviously like our parent body to be putting as much into the grassroots level as possible,” Herd said.

“In the national competition we have got the Brisbane Bandits up the road and we wouldn’t mind another team down here on the Gold Coast to be able to give more of our players the opportunity to participate at the national level.

“Having said that, baseball is considered a minority sport in Australia in terms of numbers, so for us to have international teams coming to our shores can only help the promotion and exposure of our sport.

“We could be jumping up and down saying ‘you should be putting more into the grassroots before you go setting up international teams’ but on the other hand if it brings more people to the game and raises the profile, that’s going to be benefiting the grassroots and local clubs.

“Not much has changed over the last decade or two so maybe something different like this is going to be the spark for that. I’m excited at the exposure, I just hope it does what the ABL are hoping it does.”

The new ABL team will be made up solely of South Korean players, who will be based and play all their home games in Australia.

The location of the team will be confirmed in the next fortnight, while a second expansion franchise is also likely.

“A Korean team entering the ABL was the vision before a pitch was thrown in 2010,” Vale said.