LAUSANNE, Switzerland – Baseball’s world governing body, WBSC,revealed the qualified nations and dates for the 2015 U-18 Baseball World Cup – the highest and most elite competition platform for baseball players in this age group.
The 2015 WBSC U-18 World Cup will be staged from 28 August – 06 September, with the “Mecca of Japanese Baseball” – historic Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya built in 1924 – serving as an iconic backdrop for the world’s best 18-year-old baseball players and future superstars.
Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) is adjusting the Hanshin Tigers’ home schedule at the legendary 47,000-seat (Hanshin) Koshien Stadium to accommodate and further add to the prestige of the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup – and to honour the best young baseball players in the world and help drive a magical in-stadium fan-experience.
The nations heading to Koshien Stadium have been finalised after the first-ever U-18 World Cup continental qualifiers in Africa (Mera, Kenya) and Oceania (Auckland, New Zealand) concluded this past weekend. The historic qualifiers were regarded by WBSC leadership as “key breakthroughs in baseball/softball’s global evolution that unite the U-18 Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania continental championships”.
The U-18 World Cup in Japan will feature six out of the Top 10 nations in the world, and eleven out of the Top 20, making for one of the most competitive U-18 World Cups on record.
The powerful bloc of U18 World Cup qualified nations represents a global footprint that spans across the entire western hemisphere, Africa, Asia, Central and Southern Europe, and Oceania.
WBSC officials are confident the 2015 U-18 World Cup’s broadcast and online/mobile reach will surpass the record broadcast numbers of its 2013 U18 World Cup predecessor – which had a potential broadcast reach of 144 million homes and potential online/mobile reach of 20 million, based on reports furnished by leading media rights agency and WBSC broadcast partner MP & Silva. WBSC leaders base forecasts on the strength of the 2015 U18 World Cup nations, as well as the current positive audience growth trends for international baseball properties that feature WBSC’s Members’ National Teams.
U-18 Global launching pad for future stars
The biennial U-18 world championship showcase has featured some of the biggest names in the sport, such as Canada’s Brett Lawrie, Japan’s Yu Darvish and Shohei Ohtani, South Korea’s Shin-soo Choo, Cuba’s Yasiel Puig and Aroldis Chapman, and USA’s Justin Upton and Buster Posey, among countless others. The most recent generation of rising stars include Cuba’s Jorge Soler, USA’s Francisco Lindor and Canada’s Dalton Pompey, all of whom played at the 2010 U18 Baseball World Cup in Thunder Bay, Canada (which will return as host for the 2017 WBSC U18 Baseball World Cup).
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