Surrey is pitching to host the 2016 International Softball Federation (ISF) Women’s World Softball Championship (WWSC) – an event that would provide an estimated $20.2 million boost to the city’s economy.
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts is optimistic about her city’s chances having hosted Canada’s biggest international softball tournament every year since 1992.
That tournament, originally called the West Coast Classic, become the Canada Cup and was rebranded the Canadian Open in 2010.
It’s now widely seen as the world’s second most prestigious women’s softball championship after the WWSC.
Surrey’s chance of winning the bid is boosted in part because the ISF has awarded Canada the WWSC on three previous occasions: St John’s in 1994; Saskatoon in 2002 and Whitehorse in 2012.
The Canadian Open Fastpitch Society (COFS) is the bid’s organizing committee.
Investment needed to host the tournament would amount to $100,000, Watts said.
“Our investment in this is basically upgrading the existing facility of the Softball City Sports and Entertainment Complex,” she said.
Other venues would include the Cloverdale Athletic and Sunnyside public parks.
But COFS estimates the reward to be $20.2 million, said Greg Timm, chairman of the COFS and the bid committee.
“A normal Canadian Open would likely have an economic impact of about $8 million, or 40% of what the WWSC would be,” Timm said.
“The WWSC is a much larger competition, and it will bring more athletes and a lot more spectators.
Most of the economic impact would be from spending on hotels restaurants and stores.
How many athletes and their supporters will be in town won’t be known until after the host team is named, ISF president Don Porter told Business in Vancouver.
“It depends on how many national federations, which are eligible to send teams, enter,” Porter said. “The maximum number of teams we’ve had at a tournament was 34.”
Timm’s organization will also get a boost. It will likely expand from one full-time staff member and a student intern to a total of four people including a student intern.
“We normally have 450 volunteers, and they’re very engaged,” Timm said. “With the WWSC, we’ll have more than that. There’s lots of interest in this tournament because it’s the most prestigious in the world. Women’s fastpitch in this sport is the premium event, not the men’s.”
If Surrey hosts the WWSC, it will hold the event concurrently with a smaller Canadian Open.
The Canadian Open has six divisions.
Four are for youth and the other two are for women – one elite tier and one grouping of less competitive female teams.
The four Canadian Open divisions that are for youth teams would operate as usual.
The two women’s divisions, however, would be replaced with the larger WWSC.
The ISF, the sport’s international governing organization, is scheduled to hold a congress on October 25 in Cartagena, Colombia, where approximately 150 delegates will vote and determine the host city.
Porter said competing cities’ names have yet to be disclosed. •
