Major League Baseball

MLB eyes London Olympic stadium for baseball games

Published Mar. 30, 2012 7:44 p.m. ET

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Major League Baseball officials have been watching with envy for years as the NBA, NFL and NHL played games in Europe. Now, stadiums in London and the Netherlands could provide the chance for baseball to follow suit.

The biggest obstacle for MLB in Europe has been to find a facility with the right dimensions and seating capacity, and London's Olympic Stadium is under consideration.

"That (London) stadium, the way it's built, actually is big enough for a baseball game," Clive Russell of MLB International told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "It's not perfect, but it has some real potential."

West Ham football club is among the bidders vying to take over the stadium after the Olympics, and Russell said that MLB is also talking to the games' legacy committee.

The London stadium will seat 80,000 spectators for the Olympics. After the games, it will be downsized to a 60,000-capacity multipurpose venue, including for track and field.

Russell said MLB has measured the London stadium.

"It's tight and there would be some struggles with sight-lines," he said.

Another option is a new €15 million ($20 million) stadium being built near Schipol airport in the Netherlands, which will have 3,000 permanent seats but room for temporary seating of 25,000. It's due to open in early 2014.

"So right now they're the front-runners," Russell said while attending the presentation of the Italian baseball season. "If you build it we will come."

MLB is also excited over the recently unveiled plans for a new worldwide qualifying tournament for the World Baseball Classic.

In September and November, 16 nations will compete in four different pools for the right to compete in the 2013 Classic.

"The biggest single thing that we've done is add a qualifying round for the World Baseball Classic," Russell said.

Qualifying will begin in Regensburg, Germany, Sept. 20-24 with Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany and Britain competing. Then France, Israel, South Africa and Spain will meet in Jupiter, Florida.

The third pool in Taipei, Taiwan will feature Taiwan, New Zealand, the Philippines and Thailand. Qualifying will conclude with Brazil, Colombia, Nicaragua and Panama playing in Panama City.

The winners of the four groups will each advance to the Classic in March 2013.

Six months after the Classic, in September 2013, the IOC will vote to decide on one new sport for the 2020 Olympic program. Baseball and softball are competing with karate, roller sports, sports climbing, squash, wakeboard and wushu.

The IOC voted in 2005 to remove baseball and softball from the Olympic program after the 2008 Beijing Games. As separate bids, the two sports both failed to return for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and the International Softball Federation (ISF) are now putting the final touches on a joint bid for Olympic reinstatement.

The two federations need to form a new, combined body.

"We're working out the final details," IBAF president Riccardo Fraccari said. "The presidency will rotate year to year."

Fraccari added that he plans to draw up the final details with ISF president Don Porter at a meeting of national Olympic committees in Moscow on April 11, and then make a presentation to the IOC on April 19 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

However, Fraccari has still not secured a guarantee that major league stars would be freed up to play in the Olympics.

"Stopping the season is impossible. But that's not what I'm asking for," Fraccari said. "If we could just get one or two players per team, that could be enough."

Another option Fraccari floated was suspending the All-Star Game every four years and having a break later in the season for the Olympics instead.

"We would like to see baseball back in the Olympics - what the path for that is, I think we should let these guys finish their negotiations before we make any formal comment," Russell said. "There are a lot of pieces of the puzzle that need to come into place to have that discussion."

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