THUNDER BAY — Port Arthur Stadium may be welcoming the world for the third time in 14 years in the summer of 2024.
Following up on this past summer’s Friendship Series between the Canada and the United States, the Thunder Bay International Baseball Association on Tuesday announced it will bid on the 2023 First Stage WSBC Women’s Baseball World Cup and the 2024 Women’s Baseball World Cup.
It’s a natural next step, said TBIBA vice-president Nick Melchiorre, standing outside the proposed venue for both events, Port Arthur Stadium.
Thunder Bay hosted the 2010 World Junior Baseball Championship, and seven years later, the WSBC U18 Baseball World Cup.
“We’ve had two successful world championships here in Thunder Bay, in 2010 and 2017. This summer we had the Friendship Series, which came out of a two-year hiatus with COVID. The women’s teams, Canada and the U.S., wanted to get together and have a friendly series to get back into action,” Melchiorre said.
“Starting then, we let them know that we were interested in bidding on future events and the negotiations began from there.”
The first event, the first-stage qualifier, would involve six teams in the Pan-American zone playing for three available spots at the 2024 event.
Should Thunder Bay win the bid to host the 2024 Women’s Baseball World Cup, Canada would automatically gain a spot as the host team.
Both events would take place in August.
“Those top three North American and South American teams will play the top three teams from Europe and Asia,” Melchiorre said.
The most recent scheduled Women’s World Cup was scheduled for 2020 in Tijuana, Mexico, but was cancelled by the pandemic.
“At this point in time, we don’t know of any other city that’s applying, but the bid is open until December 2022,” Melchiorre said, adding he expects to hear one way or the other by early next year.
“With the timing and energy that we’ve put in already, I think we’ve got a head start.”
Former major leaguer Jason Dickson, Baseball Canada’s CEO, said the organization is thrilled to partner with the Thunder Bay bid committee to bring the two events to the Northern Ontario city.
"We know that the TBIBA bid is a winning bid. It’s a sports city, it’s a baseball city, and people from across Canada, and around the world will want to be in and near Thunder Bay in the summer of 2023 and 2024, when the best women’s baseball teams in the world will compete for a world championship.”
Melchiorre said he’s been assured by city hall that the 71-year-old stadium will be spruced up in time for the event.
The Thunder Bay Border Cats, the building’s primary tenant, have not played since 2019, though are expected back in 2023.
Organizers are looking for volunteers, who can message TBIBA on its Facebook page.
