New TV Contract Brings European Champions Cup Final to Millions of Homes

Written by: Jerry Milani on 10th June 2009

New TV Contract Brings European Champions Cup Final to Millions of Homes | read this item

Television exposure is an important key to the growth of baseball in all areas of the world. Logically, the more people who can learn and enjoy the sport through TV, the more that will follow it through other channels.

One of Europe’s most prominent baseball events has found a spot on one of the continent’s largest and fastest-growing television networks as Eurosport 2 has agreed to televise the Championship Game of the IBAF European Champions Cup in Barcelona on June 22. Though it’s not live coverage — the event will be held on the previous day — the broadcast marks the first time that the Champions Cup will have international TV coverage.

nettuno The Champions Cup annually features the top four club teams in Europe. This year, Fortitudo Bologna and Danesi Caffe’ Nettuno of Italy will take on L and D Amsterdam and Corendon Kinheim of the Netherlands. The semi-finals will take place on June 20 with the finals and third place game on the following day. Eurosport 2 will broadcast the final on a delayed basis on June 22 at 8:15 p.m., and repeat the broadcast on June 26 at 3 p.m. and June 27 at 1:45 p.m. Eurosport 2 broadcasts to 35 million households in 11 languages across 46 countries.

International Baseball Federation President Dr. Harvey Schiller said in a statement that the organization is “very pleased to have Eurosport 2 broadcast the finals of the European Cup from Barcelona, the city where baseball debuted on the Olympic program in 1992″

He added, “The global interest in baseball, especially across Europe and in emerging nations, continues to grow exponentially as we move toward September’s World Cup, and this agreement is further validation that the efforts the sport is making to grow are being recognized.”

Corendon Kinheim is one of the annual powers in Dutch baseball, having won four Dutch National Championships, including back to back in 2006 and 2007, and finishing second in 2008, while L and D Amesterdam won its third Dutch national title in 2008. Fortitudo Bologna has won five Itaian titles and is the defending club champion, while Danesi Caffe’ Nettuno is one of the oldest continuous club teams in all of Europe and is always among the best club teams on the continent.

barcelona2 The Champions Cup will serve as the first major European baseball event of the season, leading up to the 2009 World Cup. Barcelona, the city where baseball debuted as an Olympic medal sport in 1992, will also play host to games between Spain, South Africa, Puerto Rico, and Cuba during the first round from September 10-12 . Other first round games will be held in Regensburg, Germany; Moscow; Prague; and Stockholm from September 9-12. The second round will be split between Italy and the Netherlands, while the final round will be in Italy on September 27. In total, 22 nations will compete for the world championship.

The IBAF noted that it will announce television plans for the World Cup shortly.

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Riz says:

June 10, 2009 at 10:18 am

Scouts from MLB teams will be able to check out some more of these guys now with the coverage. When they start getting out there more and more, it creates bigger pools of players from which the better teams are going to get the cream.