Ticket sales for World Junior Baseball on target, organizer says

Despite reports published earlier this month that state otherwise, the marketing director for the World Junior Baseball Championships says ticket sales are right on track.

As the tournament draws closer, about 600 seats are still available for purchase before the opening game on July 23 at Port Arthur Stadium. Jeff Halvorsen, marketing director for Thunder Bay International Baseball Association, said 60 per cent of the 1,600 seats were sold through tournament passes.

He added that he expects a major rush for the remaining seats.

"We had to block off a large portion of seats right away for a lot of our stake holders," Halvorsen said. "However, we have sold a fair amount. We’ve been selling quite steadily since we opened up at the end of May. I would say we are on target."

While the tournament hasn’t sold out, Halvorsen said they’ve sold enough tournament passes to consider the championships in Thunder Bay a success.

Tournament organizers will continue to sell tournament passes until July 11 and then begin to sell tickets for individual games. He added that the next step would then be to sell bleacher seats, which could go on sale as early as the day of the first game.

"We’re looking forward to strong demand for single game tickets," he said. "I know a lot of people have been waiting for that to happen. We expect the remaining seats that we have to sell out quickly for a lot of the bigger games and play off."

Although, residents can buy tickets the day of the game, Halvorsen said that residents should buy sooner rather than later as there isn’t a guarantee that a seat will be available the day of a game.