National Team Championships Registered Teams,
Members of the USA Baseball staff held a conference call on Monday to discuss our collective concerns regarding the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on the National Team Championships, as well as all of our events, and we wanted to provide you an update.
As you may be aware, USA Baseball suspended all of its events until May 15 in cooperation with the guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control, and we will continue to uphold that decision in order to protect the athletes and your staff.
We are continuing to monitor the guidelines by the CDC and the USOPC, and will evaluate the status of our programming, as well as all of its events, on a daily basis. As of this time, no decisions have been made about the National Team Championships. All decisions will continue to be made with respect to the safety and well-being of all the participating athletes, coaches and fans.
We would like to be as diligent as possible and prepare for all potential scenarios surrounding the impact of the coronavirus on the National Team Championships going forward and we, as an organization, have developed the following timeline for the event:
1) A final decision on the National Team Championships (Arizona, Florida and North Carolina) will be made on Monday, May 4th.
2) If the National Team Championships do occur on schedule, final payments will be due on Friday, May 15th. Previously, final payments were due on May 1st.
3) Teams will be allowed to drop from the tournament until May 15th and receive a full refund of deposits and registration fees that have been made up to that date. Previously, those dates were March 30th (deposits) and May 1st (registration)
4) If the National Team Championships do not occur, all teams will have the option of a full refund of deposits and registration fees or applying these fees to guarantee their spot in the 2021 event. In addition, for teams who apply these fees to 2021, USA Baseball will provide a 10% discount on next year's tournament registration fee.
5) If necessary, USA Baseball will begin to process and send all refund checks the week of May 18th.
We understand there are still a lot of unanswered questions and uncertainty moving forward, but we will continue to update everyone regularly to ensure all decisions are made in a timely manner. We very much appreciate your commitment to the organization and we will continue to champion the best possible course of action moving forward with consideration to the best interest of all parties involved.
If there is something that we did not touch on that you would like to discuss, please let us know. We will continue to keep in regular communication with you all as updates become available.
Thank you for your understanding and please stay safe!