British Baseball Development Plan – New Sessions Added!

Thu 24 Feb 2022

Starting last autumn, throughout every part of the UK and including every type of participant and age group, British baseball started the process of collaborating on a national development plan for baseball in the UK.

Jointly supported, coordinated and led by BaseballSoftballUK and the British Baseball Federation, this plan is intended to capture agreed priorities for the development of all areas of baseball – ranging from entry level through to elite, from a child’s first experience to seasoned contributors in our sport.

Following the first five sessions, the following additional topics and discussions have been added:

Webinar 6: Officiating/Umpiring - Tuesday, 1 March
Webinar 7: Volunteers - Tuesday, 22 March

All workshops will run between 7:00 pm and 8:30 pm.

A further webinar on competitions will take place on Wednesday, 16 March - please contact Chris Rawlings directly .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

This plan is a clear commitment from all the parties involved to move past league affiliations to create a single, unifying development plan that will serve as our roadmap for the years to come.

“More than ever, baseball has so much going for it: The GB Baseball Men’s Senior team achieving its best European result in over ten years; the possibility of future MLB regular season games returning to London; achievement of UK Sport investment into our elite programmes; partnerships with Sport England and the Mayor of London’s Office; a new and energised women’s league; several new youth programmes; thriving leagues across the country; and with the prospect of facility development projects in the works at Farnham Park National Baseball & Softball Complex and across the country. We are starting from a positive position of nationwide collaboration to create this plan,” said John Boyd, CEO of BaseballSoftballUK.

“Now comes the hard work of defining how the sport grows and develops across the UK. Leaders from across the sport see this as a chance to create a common road map for the future of our historic sport. As bodies with national remits, BSUK and the BBF have an important role to play in championing the creation of this plan, and facilitating its implementation, but it must be owned by the sport’s grassroots – success will be achieved only through the hard work of all involved,” added Boyd

“2022 is shaping up to be an excellent platform to raise the profile of British baseball in so many different ways,” said Erik Gustafson, Interim Presiding Officer of the British Baseball Federation. “Our Women’s Senior team will compete for the first time against the best teams in Europe next summer, in addition to our elite youth national teams finally being able to return to competition. Having already started this initiative in September, the BBF plans to expand its collaboration and competition with independent leagues across the nation next year, as well. We look forward to leveraging BSUK’s personnel resources and financial strength to promote the baseball development plan that will redefine our sport in the UK,” added Gustafson.

The following people are just a few of those in support of creating a single, unified baseball development plan: