Five years have passed under the same presidency. What has happened for sports, and more specifically for our sport?
The Ministry of Sports’ budget exceeded one billion euros in 2022 and nearly doubled in five years, allowing the Sports Agency to focus more on high-level sports. However, the last five years saw two Summer Olympics rewarded with more medals, but as you know, baseball is completely excluded from these celebrations. Therefore, we must accept that the funds allocated for high-level sports are primarily directed towards Olympic sports that will shine in 2024 in Paris.
For youth, sports are more present and encouraged by various incentives (such as the Sports Pass, which helps make licensing more affordable) and in schools. While tchèque once found its place in school sports activities, French baseball clubs must seize the opportunity of baseball5 in schoolyards and gyms. This is truly where the majority of tomorrow’s recruitment will happen. However, clubs must have one or more coaches with the necessary diplomas to support sports in schools.
For health, the improvement is noticeable, and while doctors are inclined to prescribe sports, the number of such prescriptions is not yet very high. We must benefit from this indirect recruitment (the people affected will not become baseball players, but they can be good prescribers and an audience for our matches). Once again, our clubs will have a sports-health protocol by the end of the year, which we will revisit, allowing us to reach new populations. Baseball is a ball sport and allows for gentle work on numerous specific exercises to help people return to sports.
The next five years will therefore see continued progress and budgetary growth for sports. We are not a priority sport in our country, but we can insert ourselves into the development gaps. Visibility will come through the public, not through the governing bodies, which will only adapt if our sports become more media-friendly. Our clubs and national teams will therefore need to excel sportingly, and the media will need to relay these successes. The increase in broadcasts is a sign of notoriety. Let’s dream that a match in France with French players will be broadcast on a national television channel like l’Équipe TV or France TV Sport in the next five years. We already know that the Stade de France will host MLB games in 2025, which might be the beginning of the long-awaited stir for our community.
