NPB Hopes to Leverage Sponsorship to Convince Players to Compete in WBC

After discussing a number of issues with World Baseball Classic (WBC) organizers following the Japan Professional Baseball Players Association (JBPA) refusing to participate, the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league revealed that it owns certain rights to sponsorship revenues related Samurai Japan’s participation in the tournament .

Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters representative, Toshimasa Shimada, said: “We were able to reconfirm that Japan could own these rights.”

The NPB’s sponsorship revelation may be a positive sign following an apparently unproductive meeting between NPB officials’ and WBC organizers in New York last week.

NPB officials are expected to sit down with the JPBPA soon and present the results of their meeting to try to convince players to participate. {jcomments on}