Redcliffe to host Softball World Cup, throwing curveball to Logan’s Olympic hopes
Redcliffe will host the 2027 Softball World Cup, setting up a fierce competition with Logan City Council in the latest gambit for diamond sports’ inclusion in the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.
It will be the first time Australia has hosted the event since it was held in 1965. Among Australia’s championship-winning team in Melbourne was Margaret Swann, who was at a rain-soaked Redcliffe Surf Live Saving Club for the announcement on Wednesday morning.
“I think softball is going to be right up there with everything, so I think it’s wonderful for the girls,” she said.
1965 world champion Margaret Swann at the announcement that Redcliffe will host the 2027 Softball World Cup.Credit: Cameron Atfield
“They’ve got so much opportunity and fighting to get into the team, that’s a big thing.
“Get into that team and to be an Olympian, that would be lovely.”
But there was no venue for Olympic softball and baseball in the Brisbane 2032 delivery plan – an infrastructure gap seized on by Logan Mayor Jon Raven who, as this masthead revealed, was planning a privately funded ballpark at the city’s Griffith University campus.
His counterpart in Redcliffe, Moreton Bay Mayor Peter Flannery, could not resist a dig at his fellow mayor as his city was announced as World Cup host.
“We think we should be hosting an Olympic venue here, so to Mayor Jon Raven at Logan, sorry mate – you missed the boat on this one,” he said.
“Softball and baseball have got a beautiful relationship here in the City of Moreton Bay, where at Talobilla Park we’ve got both softball and baseball facilities together, saving many millions of dollars in communication for media outlets [during the Olympic Games].
“So that’s my plug to get it in there.”
Queensland Sports Minister Tim Mander said he welcomed the competitive tension between the councils.
“I love the idea that we may have councils that would be bidding against each other to host events. That’s an exciting part of the Games, that everybody wants to see it firsthand,” he said.
The 2027 Softball World Cup will be held at Kippa-Ring’s Talobilla Park, close to the Redcliffe Dolphins’ Kayo Stadium, between April 5 and 11 in 2027.
Temporary stands would be installed to boost capacity to about 5000, and a permanent $4.8 million clubhouse, jointly funded by the council and Commonwealth, would be complete in time for the World Cup.
Talobilla Park at Kippa-Ring, where Moreton Bay’s mayor hopes to host baseball and softball for the 2032 Olympic Games.Credit: Brisbane Times / Cameron Atfield
Softball Australia chief executive Sarah Loh said she had been pushing events into Queensland, such as the World Cup, for the past two years as part of a strategy to be part of Brisbane 2032.
“Every time we have an international tour, guess where it’s being played? Queensland,” she said.
“The government are aware of my strategy, and they love it. You know why? Because I’m bringing in tourism dollars.
“China came out for four weeks. They wanted to spend that entire four weeks in Blacktown. I said, ‘No, you can spend one week there, then you’re spending the remaining three weeks up in Queensland,’ because we need to be right underneath the noses of the Queensland government and the [Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee].”
World Baseball Softball Confederation president Riccardo Fraccari, who travelled from Switzerland for Wednesday’s announcement, said he hoped the World Cup would help secure diamond sports’ place in the 2032 Olympic roster.
“We have all the requirements – we have the importance to the community, we have the performance of Australia, we have the attention of the media, we have the commercial interest,” he said.
“We have all the requirements for it to be there.”
Except, for now, the venue.
Fraccari said he would meet with Raven to discuss the Logan proposal on Thursday and would bring some potential investors to the table, but he was just as open to a Redcliffe facility for 2032.
“What’s important is to achieve the result,” he said.
“Like we did in in in Tokyo, we can see to have the same field for baseball and softball, so we can save money.”
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