The city should know by the end of February if a prestigious international baseball event will return.
Thunder Bay International Baseball Association executive director Warren Philp said the International Baseball Federation is scheduled to meet on Feb. 19 to award the 2015 World Junior Baseball Championships.
Thunder Bay previously hosted the event in the summer of 2010 when nearly 50,000 spectators took in the action at Port Arthur Stadium and Baseball Central.
Based on that strong hosting result, the city was selected in October to be Baseball Canada’s bid for the next tournament.
“We’re optimistic that given our track record from 2010 that we’ll be selected,” Philp said. “Of course, that’s in the hands of the IBF and we’ll be anxiously awaiting word from them.”
The city had also previously bid on the 2013 edition of the tournament, which was ultimately awarded to Taiwan and took place in August and September of this past year.
That did not deter Philp and other local officials from taking a swing at bringing the tournament back. The under-18 competition is said to be the event of choice for the TBIBA.
“We’ve been monitoring the various opportunities that exist for event hosting and given the success of 2010 we’ve been following closely the opportunity to bring this event back to Thunder Bay,” Philp said.
Organizers from the 2010 event have estimated the tournament resulted in nearly $6 million in economic impact for the city.
(With files from Thunder Bay Television)
