By Alex Soloducha

P.A. to host Softball World Championships

Oct 26, 2015 | 2:52 PM

Phase three of Project Triple Play is on its way with the announcement that the 2018 Junior Men’s World Softball Championships will be held in Prince Albert.

The project began over a year ago, leading to phase one—hosting the U16 Boys Canadian Championships in August. Phase two is ongoing upgrades to the facilities at Prime Minister’s Park.

The World Championships, to run from July 7-15, will be one of the largest scale sporting events ever held in the city.

The tournament will bring teams from at least 10 different countries, along with their supporters.

City officials and those involved in the sports community gathered at the Art Hauser Centre Monday morning as details were released.

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In the next two years, planning will be priority and organizers say they’ll be recruiting over 500 volunteers.

The economic impact has been estimated at $12 million for the province and $8 million for the city alone with up to 30,000 extra people spending money at local restaurants, hotels and other businesses.

Project Triple Play is 43 per cent towards its goal of $1.2 million towards renovations, meaning they’re looking for local businesses to step up and help out.  

Recently, the Rotary Club of Prince Albert signed up as a grand slam sponsor.

Before the event, they plan on creating a new feature diamond to meet the 250 feet requirements. These upgrades will be completed within a 40-day window starting November 2016.

Mayor Greg Dionne said hosting the championships is a great opportunity for the city.

“When they say there is going to be economic spin off for the city, I know that’s a fact, I’ve been to these events quite a bit,” said Dionne, who attended 52 out of 70 games at the 2015 Championship in Saskatoon.  “People come out in droves, and the people that do come, they spend money.

“We’re a small community of 40,000 and we’re going to host a world event—that’s a big plus for our community,” said Dionne.

The mayor said it’s also a way to encourage youth to be more involved with the sport.

“It’s going to really energize fast ball in our community and that’s the good part about it too—get the youth fired up, get them back interested. Let’s play ball,” said Dionne.

The mayor has called on people to help out either by volunteering or simply enjoying the event.

“We are the world champions when it comes to volunteers,” he said.

This will be the first Softball World Championships held in Western Canada and the first world championship of any kind to be held in Prince Albert.

In the past 10 years, 11 players from the Prince Albert Astros have played on the Canadian team.

asoloducha@panow.com

On Twitter: @alex_soloducha