Canada Cup women's tourney cancelled

‘Pretty disappointing’: Canada Cup softball tourney killed by rescheduling of women’s worlds
By Gary Kingston, Vancouver Sun
VANCOUVER — A late rescheduling of this year's women's softball world championships has forced Glen Todd to cancel the women's division of the annual Canada Cup tournament at Softball City in South Surrey.
The International Softball Federation has moved the 2010 worlds to Caracas, Venezuela, June 23-July 2, from its original mid-July date in Oklahoma City.
The hugely popular Canada Cup, which annually attracts 120,000 fans during its nine-day run to watch some of the top countries in the game, was to be held from July 3-11 this summer.
"It meant teams would have had to get here in one day," said Todd, the businessman who has been the driving force and financier behind the tournament since its inception in 1993. "And coming right after worlds, you'd have had teams pulling out saying they were tired, or they've got injuries. The U.S. was just going to send a second team, a bunch of kids."
Todd established the tournament after women's fastpitch gained Olympic status for the 1996 Games. The sport was subsequently voted out of the Olympics, with its last appearance in 2008.
Todd said he's still looking to see if it's feasible to hold the Futures (under 18) and Showcase (under 16) divisions, which were to attract 72 teams. But without the senior women's event as a draw, it might be difficult.
Todd also said he's not sure the Canada Cup will return in 2011.
"I'm kind of disheartened right now," he said. "We'll see. I don't want to say something I'll regret."
Todd said the Australians, always a crowd favourite at Canada Cup, are "fuming" at ISF president Don Porter's decision to move the worlds. It was made after the ISF realized Cuba, Dominican Republic and Venezuela, all of whom had qualified for worlds, were committed to playing in the Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico at the same time as the event was scheduled in Oklahoma.
"As a lead-in to worlds, we were going to have our biggest tournament ever," said Todd, adding there was no opportunity to move Canada Cup into June. "We had most of the South American teams, all of the Asian teams, some European teams."
He said today he didn't want to know how much money had been spent on planning for the now cancelled event.
"I was thinking about that this morning. And I just said 'Pay the bills and forget it.' It's pretty disappointing."