WHILE we may not see Taylor Walker, Rory Sloane or the Crouch brothers slogging home runs anytime soon, the Adelaide Crows have expanded their non-football enterprises to include a professional baseball team.
Adelaide added another element to its club on Monday by taking ownership of Adelaide Bite, a baseball team which will play in a revamped Australian Baseball League from later this year.
Cross-town rival Port Adelaide may have been focusing on China, but Adelaide will have access to Korea and New Zealand through sides from those countries playing in the ABL.
The club has said the addition of a new sporting side will not impact the Crows’ football and high-performance departments.
Crows chairman Rob Chapman said the acquisition was providing support for another state-based team and the community involved in it.
"We have often spoken about the need to diversify and what we are doing in this instance is playing to our strengths in sports administration, while adopting a model in line with other similar organisations across the globe," Chapman said.
"Baseball is a proven and popular sport in the United States and Asia and it expands our brand and footprint offshore.
"Our board and senior management have a clear focus on building sustained success both on and off the field in a sports and entertainment landscape that is becoming increasingly competitive.
"Baseball Australia fielded significant interest for licences from throughout Australia and overseas, and we are appreciative of their recognition of both our organisational capability and the importance of Adelaide continuing to be represented at the highest level of baseball in this country."
Baseball Australia CEO Cam Vale said the international reach of the ABL would be beneficial to Adelaide.
"There will be a minimum 40 ABL games broadcast into Korea to a total audience exceeding 10 million people, not to mention broadcasts into other countries such as Japan, Taiwan and the United States," Vale said.
"In 2017 alone, 34 million people went to professional baseball games in Asia which in itself creates a great opportunity for the Bite and in turn the Crows, along with our other ABL teams."
Adelaide now has four teams: AFL, AFLW, e-sports side Legacy and Bite.
