The Western Canadian Baseball League says it wasn’t an easy decision, but it is delaying the start of the 2020 season.
Its goal, at this point, is to begin sometime in late June or early July depending on the state of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Although the circumstances are not moving quickly enough at present in our favour, we want to look at all options in order to play this year,” WCBL president Kevin Kvame said following a board of governors call on Wednesday night.
“The start of the season as scheduled in late May is impossible to maintain at this point and thus, we regrettably need to make this decision. At the same time, however, we express that with ever-changing dynamics and circumstances on this pandemic and the measures needed to curtail it, we still want to maintain hope that a partial season can be played should health and government positions on the pandemic change enough to make it feasible.
“We know our talented players want to play and we know the communities are looking for positive, family-friendly activities to return. We are embracing that role, whenever that green light is turned on.”
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The league said decisions moving forward will be made in accordance with provincial governments and their health officials.
“The health and safety of our players, coaches, officials and fans are paramount in all of our decision making and we will not be doing anything that is not in accordance with the public health authorities and governments of the respective provinces,” Kvame said.
Currently, the WCBL is working on what it is calling a legacy project allowing teams to continue to show their community pride and brand themselves when the teams are able to return.
The WCBL is a 10-team league involving six teams in Alberta and four teams in Saskatchewan.
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