Softball Eliminated from the Olympics - Local Marketing Agency Tapped to Help Bring It Back
Softball exits looking for silver lining

Beijing, China - 22nd August 2008 - Mike Candrea must take us to be morons.

He must think we all fell off a turnip truck, through a rabbit hole, into a delusion. The head coach of USA softball must think proclaiming parity can make it so.

After his softball steamroller came to an abrupt stop yesterday in the Olympic gold medal game, Candrea tried to spin Japan's 3-1 victory as proof of his sport's burgeoning balance. Here's hoping softball's stewards settle on a more persuasive tack as they pursue reinstatement to the Olympic program for 2016.

There's a case to be made against Olympic extinction. Softball (like baseball) is a game worth growing, worth exporting, worth watching. Yet to pretend that more than three or four countries are legitimately competitive among the 204 nations represented at these Summer Games is just plain silly. It is an insult to the intelligence of the International Olympic Committee - no mean feat - and a strategy that smacks of desperation.

"I don't think that people outside the game understand," Candrea said. "If you're on the team and in the dugout, you know that any team can get hot.

"I feel that people should get off our back. There is some parity in this sport. I've been around long enough to expect everyone we play to be getting better. Sometimes, a game looks easy and it really isn't."

From the unenlightened outside looking in, it certainly would appear that Team USA had six easy games among its seven preliminaries. Caldrea's club entered the medal round having outscored its opponents 53-1, with three no-hitters and only one game closer than seven runs.

Four years ago in Athens, Team USA outscored its opponents 51-1 en route to a gold medal.

If that's not utter dominance, it will do. If the long-running disparity between a handful of serious softball countries and everyone else helped persuade the IOC to drop softball from the Summer Games beginning in 2012, that rationale does not seem unreasonable.

Though anti-American sentiment can never be discounted in IOC politics, there are plenty of practical problems to consider.

Primarily, there is the matter of money. Building an Olympic-caliber softball or baseball stadium is an expensive proposition, one that is hard to justify if the structure is obsolete once the Olympic tournament ends.

Other aspiring and at-risk Olympic sports are more easily adapted to existing or versatile venues and some of them attract a wider television audience than does softball. If you're an IOC member from a country where softball evokes apathy, what could convince you it was worth the cost?

This is not intended to disparage the sport or the American women who excel at it, merely to show that it faces some roadblocks en route to a reprieve.

That 130 nations have formed softball federations is a point in softball's favor. What backers need now is for softball interest to achieve as much depth as breadth, a daunting task being undertaken by the San Diego-based marketing firm JHG.

"There is a passion for the game - and not just in the United States," JHG Executive Vice President Elizabeth Estes-Cooper wrote in response to an e-mail question. "Our goal is to harness that passion and create a virtual tidal wave of support and enthusiasm for softball all over the world. The Back Softball campaign wants to grow the sport to over 10 million players, specifically by focusing on the youth with an emphasis on the Middle East."

That's a goal not easily attained in a decade, much less in 14 months. Yet with the IOC due to vote on the program for the 2016 Summer Games in October, 2009 - and so much funding contingent on Olympic status - the appearance of international interest (and some semblance of parity) is critical.

To that end, losing the gold medal to Japan might eventually prove a disguised blessing.

"It's interesting because everyone says all the time that we win and no one can compete," outfielder Jessica Mendoza said. "It was proven today that (other) teams can (win). The sport should remain. It's global."

Softball is global in the sense that equipment is available worldwide. Competitively, however, the international playing field is no more level than a ski slope.

"I haven't really thought about the big picture," pitcher Cat Osterman said. "It hurts too much to look at the future. Hopefully, some of the younger ones, there's a chance they'll have another shot with reinstatement. But in the present moment, it just hurts."

The easy games are over. The hard sell continues.

About the ISF and BackSoftball
The ISF is the world governing body of the sport as recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the General Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF). Softball (women’s fast pitch) made its Olympic debut at the 1996 Games in Atlanta. There are 131 affiliated countries in the ISF and millions of participants in the sport worldwide.

The ISF’s BackSoftball campaign is working toward the vote for the 2016 Games programme, which will be held at the IOC Session in Copenhagen, Denmark, in October 2009.

About JHG-Townsend
San Diego-based JHG is a collection of integrated marketing groups that empower client companies in sports and entertainment, technology, lifestyle, and wellness to take full advantage of new techniques to engage audiences and drive results. JHG combines traditional communications with new technologies, such as interactive, mobile, digital public relations and other Web-based services, to create breakthrough marketing programs. Each of the three groups offer focused expertise or serve the needs of specific industries: JHG Townsend PR & Branding, JHG Interactive & Mobile, and JHG Sports & Entertainment. JHG clients include Qualcomm, MediaFLO USA and MediaFLO Technologies, National University System, Rogers Communications, Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc., Vidacare, Continuous Computing, Sequoia Communications, Covario, Tessera Technologies, and many more.

The rules of marketing are changing. And we’d love to help you embrace the change. For more information, www.jhg.com or call 1.858.457.4888.