Baseball Australia confirmed there will be a New Zealand team in the Australian Baseball League next season, according to David Long of STUFF. The as yet unnamed New Zealand team will play in the North East Division, along with Canberra Cavalry, Sydney Blue Sox and Brisbane Bandits. However, while the ABL confirmed that one of the expansion teams will be based in New Zealand, Baseball New Zealand is "still to fully sign off on the team." There is a "delay over the venue to be used for the team," which will be based at QBE Stadium. For the first year, the team will play on a "pop up diamond on an outside field" and move inside the main stadium for the second season, after it has been reconfigured. There are "still some costing issues that need to be sorted for that pop up stadium before the Baseball NZ board finally gives the green light to go ahead with the professional team" (STUFF, 6/5). In Auckland, Christopher Reive reported the New Zealand team will be "one of two new teams," alongside one from Korea. The two will join the six current Australian teams. The eight teams will form two conferences, playing a 160-game season across 10 weeks. It will become the first Australian league to "transition to the conference-style competition model" used in the U.S. Baseball Australia CEO Cam Vale said, "This season will make sporting history, as Winterball Korea becomes the first overseas team to be based and play in an Australian sporting competition" (NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 6/5).
