International Baseball Partners released details about the launch of the new Americas Baseball Association (ABA). The originator of the ABA is IBP’s Chief Creative Officer, Joel Bradley who shared the vision of the association.

When I was traveling across Latin America as a scout 10 years ago and visiting a lot of underdeveloped baseball cities, I saw first-hand the impact of the game on communities and how it was a great bridge to connect people. During that time I began to kick around the idea of creating a cooperation of leagues that could improve participation rates while building local economies. While there were a number of baseball confederations, most were limited in scope to their stated missions. In 2014, I met Mike Powers and shared with him my ideas which he thought could create value in markets outside the United States, thus International Baseball Partners was born with a mission of ‘taking baseball around the world’. Today, we are making that statement a reality with the construction of the Americas Baseball Association.

In short, the ABA is an organized association of professional baseball leagues across the Americas that cooperate to enhance the business of baseball for its member countries. There are many layers to the ABA but the flagship operation is its Americas Baseball Network. The Network has the ability to deliver member baseball content to a central platform with reach to a global sports audience. It can do it without interfering with existing linear television agreements, which our members love. The ABA is built around the concept of ‘strength and value in numbers’. We believe we have an amazing platform to take each league brand and increase market shares. We have already reached out to elite and emerging baseball leagues in Latin America and have been well received. I’ll let Mike speak more in depth as to how the ABA benefits its members and which member leagues are already on board. We picked up 5 countries in just the past 2 weeks with another 3 countries discussing it with their league reps. The ABA is only going to grow and bring new values to its members and regions.

 

IBP will announce the initial board of the Americas Baseball Association at a press conference in June according to Bradley.

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