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World-class event

‘The World is Coming’: volunteers, sponsored needed for men’s softball championship

Mar 31, 2025 | 1:28 PM

‘The World is Coming!’

That is the catchphrase being used by the host committee for the upcoming World Baseball Softball Congress’s 2025 men’s softball championship scheduled for July 8-13 at the Max Power Ball Parks located in Prime Ministers’ Park and while plans are moving along to stage the world-class event, more support is still needed.

“The budget to host this event is over $1 million,” says host committee finance director and honorary chairman Felix Casavant. “We are responsible for the eight teams from the time they get off the plane until they head home and the WBSC is bringing 40 people and we have to cover everything for them from meals to accommodations to transportation.”

This isn’t the first time Prince Albert and the WBSC have worked together on a major championship. In 2018 the world junior title was decided here and last year a regional qualifier for this year’s championship was staged in Prince Albert.

“I’ll be perfectly honest, everybody wants to come to Canada because it is such a great country,” noted Casavant. “The WBSC has been real happy with us. They kind of dangled a carrot to us by saying if we hosted a regional we could have the worlds so we had to decide, do we want to take on such a big project two years in a row. In the end we couldn’t pass it up.”

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When the world junior event was held in 2018 a major expense that had to be dealt with was the construction of a state-of-the-art facility. That was met with great enthusiasm from the community and surrounding area and has been a legacy that will be enjoyed for years to come.

This time around some upgrades have to be done including the expansion of the bullpen area, cameras in the dugouts and permanent fencing around the complex. Those costs are on top of the host requirements needed to meet all the expectations put in place by the WBSC.

“I really don’t see the future having smaller centres hosting something like this,” says Casavant. “I see it going to the larger centres because of the cost, but they can’t attract the fans. For smaller centres something like this is the attraction of the day.”

Host committee finance director and honorary chairman Felix Casavant. (Submitted photo)

Competing at this year’s championship will be New Zealand, Japan, Argentina, Australia, United States, Dominican Republic and Venezuela along with the host team from Canada. If softball was still a part of the Olympics all eight of these teams would likely be competing at that level.

A number of different levels of sponsorship are available to those interested in supporting this event and while volunteers have been looking for assistance there is definitely the possibility that someone could have been missed. Anyone interested in becoming a sponsor can contact Casavant at 306-981-3774 or Dave Leaderhouse at 306-980-7702. Sponsors would like to be in place by the middle of April if at all possible.

Another area that requires immediate attention is ticket sales. A pass for the week costs $125 and that covers 20-plus games. There are several different Exclusive Ticket Packages available with these also including souvenir hats and shirts along with beverage tokens in the cost. Someone wanting to purchase one of these, but will be unable to attend the event can donate their tickets to special-need groups such as Special O, SHARE or shut-ins.

Current ticket prices are in place until April 30 after which time the sale of tickets will be turned over to SaskTicket where prices will increase due to administration costs. Until that time any committee member or the Prince Albert Tourism Centre can be contacted for the purchase of any of the various packages.

Finally, an event of this magnitude could not be hosted without a large group of volunteers. There is still a need for more help and anyone wishing to lend a hand during the week or even leading up to the first pitch can contact Dovona West at 306-290-5671.

Casavant says an economic impact statement done by the City of Prince Albert expects more than $6 million coming into the area while province wide that number rises to $9 million. This is going to be a massive undertaking, but a very rewarding one for everyone with a fun zone for kids, autograph areas for the fans, fireworks, beer gardens and food courts also on the agenda in addition to world-class softball.

“We are expecting this to be the largest event we have ever hosted,” says Casavant. “We want to make it a great experience for people to come out.”

The second week of July isn’t that far away so make plans to be a supporter – the opportunities to do so are endless.

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**This article was submitted by the WBSCS