Brisbane Bandits owner Mark Ready said that the Australian Baseball League (ABL) team is planning to establish a professional baseball team in Taiwan to play in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL).
Baseball Australia chief executive officer Cam Vale in February told CPBL commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) that he hopes the CPBL board of directors would accept a proposal, which was then said to be submitted in May, for an ABL team to play in the CPBL’s B league.
The CPBL has yet to receive such a proposal.
Photo: CNA
More teams are needed to increase audience numbers, Ready said yesterday in Taipei, adding that the number of ABL teams would soon increase to eight with the addition of a New Zealand team and a South Korean team.
With nearly equal populations, and a similar player base in professional baseball teams and international ranking, collaboration between the two leagues could help grow audience numbers in both nations, he said.
It would also allow ABL players, who only play three to four months during the baseball season, to find additional opportunities to train during the off-season, Ready said.
“We are still looking for training bases, but we are planning to establish our ‘farm team’ in southern Taiwan,” he said.
Yearly expenses are estimated to reach NT$100 million (US$3.3 million), and although the team would benefit from Australian government subsidies, it would look for potential investors in Taiwan, Ready said.
The team would not make any money playing baseball in Taiwan, but doing so would allow it to spread further into Asia, he said, adding: “That’s a cost we are ready to accept.”
The team is ready to start playing against Taiwanese farm teams, both to familiarize itself with the environment and to scout for potential Taiwanese talent, Ready said, but added that the details of what constitutes a farm team and roster players are still being worked out.
It is up to the CPBL when and under what conditions to allow the team in, he said.
Ready said the ABL hopes that the CPBL would reciprocate by establishing a team in the ABL, adding that should a Taiwanese team wish to play in the ABL season starting late next year, it should finalize its submission before June next year.
“We do not mind amateur teams,” Ready said, adding that the ABL has even suggested that the CPBL could establish a team from players who had not been drafted.
The CPBL has yet to give a definitive answer, Ready said.
The collaboration would help promote baseball, which is not very popular in Australia, Bandits coach David Nilsson said.
Ready said he is still in talks with broadcasting companies on who would have the exclusive broadcasting rights for all 20 of the Bandits’ playoff games this year.
This is due to increased viewership of ABL games by Taiwanese, in no part sparked by the Bandits signing of former Brothers Baseball Club player Lin Chih-sheng (林智勝, also known as Ngayaw Ake), and former Fubon Guardians player Chen Hung-wen (陳鴻文), Ready said.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS