The World Port Tournament Baseball 2021 is cancelled. The organization of the largest baseball tournament in the Netherlands has decided this because of the corona crisis. “This is a difficult and painful decision, but we cannot do otherwise under these special circumstances”, says tournament director Jan Dirk Stouten. ‘Because our participating teams come from different continents, we normally record them in time! We always do that during this period, but that is not possible now because nobody, 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.
Economic circumstances also play a role in the decision not to allow the bi -annual event to take place. “The corona crisis has led to an economic crisis,” says board member of Technical & Facility Affairs Arno Seltenrijch. ‘Many companies are forced to make substantial cutbacks and there are layoffs. Many companies are cutting costs considerably, and therefore also the sponsor budgets. Under these circumstances it is financially irresponsible to start the organization of our tournament. There are simply too many uncertainties. ‘
The third reason is the lack of clarity about the regulations for public events in the summer of 2021. “Although there has been positive news about possible vaccines in recent days, it is completely unclear what we are doing next summer,” says Stouten. ‘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 can’t say a sensible word about it in these confusing times. ‘
The World Port Tournament in the Neptunus Family Stadium in Rotterdam was organized for the 17th time in 2019, attracted more than 30,000 spectators and was won by Team Kingdom of the Netherlands.
