Hank Stoffer has been managing Softball Valley in Lethbridge for 15 years. During the season, hundreds come every night to play their favourite game.
“We have 95 teams that use this park–400 people a night come through these gates,” Hoffer said.
Last year, the Lethbridge Softball Association hosted the 2015 National Softball Association (NSA) Coed Canada World Series of slopitch, and brought in over $1 million in tourism to Lethbridge.
“Everything went well. We had no troubles with the organization at that time,” he said. “All the players enjoyed it and the facility.”
But this year, Softball Valley turned down the opportunity to host the prestigious event, despite the fact it was projected to bring in even more revenue in 2016.
“When we agreed to do it in 2015, they had lost their home in Calgary. Our mixed league and our association said we would help them out, but we made it clear to them we wanted to do it for one year,” Hoffer explained.
“We reaffirmed it at our AGM (annual general meeting) that we were not going to do it again in December, and again in April definitively that we were not going to do it again. They, however, let it go further than it should have,” he said.
NSA officials said they have not received any official notice from Softball Valley.
“Officially we have not received a phone call or email or a letter that they were not moving forward,” said Ewan Webster, executive vice president of NSA Canada.
Softball Valley officials said the plan is to host the tournament in the future, but added they just don’t have the volunteer base to do it every year.
NSA officials said they hope the event will return to Lethbridge in 2017.