Grand Slam
	Baseball World Cup ® 2005

Compiled and Copyright © 1997-2003 by Marco Stoovelaar

International Baseball

KNBSB, IBAF sign agreement World Cup 2005
Nederlands
ROTTERDAM (Neth.) - The official agreement for the World Cup ® 2005 was signed on Wednesday, December 17, aboard the 'James Cook' in Rotterdam.
The 36th World Cup will take place Saturday, August 6 through Saturday, August 20 in the cities of Almere, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Haarlem and Rotterdam.

...Rotterdam's Mayor... ...Ivo Opstelten... ...adresses the guests... (Photo: Marco Stoovelaar)

Representing the International BAseball Federation (IBAF) were President Aldo Notari and Executive Director Miquel Ortín and signing on behalf of the Royal Dutch Baseball & Softball Association (KNBSB) was Chairman Theo Reitsma. Rotterdam's Mayor Ivo Opstelten hosted the signing ceremony, which highlighted a fine organized afternoon aboard a ship on the Nieuwe Maas-river in Rotterdam.

Rotterdam's Mayor Ivo Opstelten stated the global growth of the popularity and commercialization of baseball.
,,The World Cup will be very important to the Netherlands, it will promote the sport and it will stimulate children to start playing the sport'', Opstelten said. ,,2005 will be a special year for Rotterdam. It will be the Year of Sports, as we will organize major international sport events. Besides that Rotterdam will be the European capitol of sports in 2005.''
Back in 2001, Mr. Opstelten suggested the organization of a baseball World Championship to Dutch Chairman Theo Reitsma during the then-held Kingdom Games in Rotterdam. Since then, the KNBSB started developing plans and officially applied for candidacy in November 2001 during the World Cup in Chinese Taipei. During the IBAF Congress in November 2002, preceeding the Intercontinental Cup-tournament in Cuba, the World Cup 2005 was awarded to The Netherlands.

Dutch Federation-Chairman Theo Reitsma mentioned the wonderfull Summer of Baseball in his speech.

...KNBSB Chairman Theo Reitsma, IBAF President Aldo Notari... ...and IBAF Executive Director Miquel Ortín... ...sign the World Cup ® 2005 agreement... (Photo: Marco Stoovelaar)

Reitsma: ,,We have a wonderfull Summer behind us. The Dutch team won the European title and qualified for the Olympic Games in Athens. An now, The Netherlands has conquered a place on the international calender.''

,,This is a big day for international baseball'', Aldo Notari, President of IBAF, said.
,,The Netherlands have proved to be a good organisor as we have seen during the European Championship and Olympic Qualifying Tournament, earlier this year. I'm convinced that they will organise another succesfull tournament.''
Later on the day, Mr. Notari, as well as Executive Director Miquel Ortín, also mentioned the history of the World Cup. ,,The World Cup has a rich history. This will be the 36th time a World Cup will be organized. It is a very important event.''

The three executives then signed the agreement which made the World Cup ® 2005 officially an event to be organized by The Netherlands.

In August 2005, sixteen national teams will participate in the 15-day event, playing a total of 68 games. Rotterdam will be the central organizational and game-city, hosting the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, as well as the Final.
So far eight teams have already qualified for the 2005 World Cup, being the representatives of Europe and Asia. The European teams are The Netherlands, Greece, Sweden and Spain. The Asian teams are Japan, Chinese Taipei, South Korea and China.
The participating teams from Africa (1), Oceania (1) and the Americas (6) will come from Qualifying Tournament to be played in 2004.
(December 17)

...KNBSB Chairman Theo Reitsma, IBAF President Aldo Notari... ...and IBAF Executive Director Miquel Ortín... ...join hands after signing the World Cup ® 2005 agreement... (Photo: Marco Stoovelaar)