New Twist on Softball Gaining Popularity Around the Nation
New Twist on Softball Gaining Popularity Around the Nation
Arena Softball, a new indoor sport recently featured in the Sacramento Business Journal, is catching on in cities around the country and even around the world.
There's a new sport known as Arena Softball that is catching on quickly, and as a recent feature story in the Sacramento Business Journal shows, it is becoming a national phenomenon. Founded by Greg Joseph with the help of local business developer Chris Vrame in 2003, the indoor sport has grown immensely in only five years.
The game is played on a regulation softball diamond, and players use all of the softball skills they're used to. The twist is a tight spring loaded net that encloses the entire softball field, so every hit is in play. Although Joseph found it was difficult at first to turn a profit with a new game, Arena Softball is now profitable and has gained interest internationally. The softball-inspired game is in its second season in the Minneapolis suburb of Eagan, Minnesota, and there are advanced plans to take Arena Softball to Hartford, Connecticut and Spokane, Washington. The game even has someone from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates interested.Arena Softball is still the biggest hit back in Roseville, CA, a city near Sacramento, where it began.
According to the Sacramento Business Journal article, there are approximately 800 people coming to the indoor softball complex every day, with 106 different teams playing. Joseph aims to open a second complex in the Pacific Northwest, and a third in Elk Grove or Natomas, California.
The formation of the International Arena Softball Association has inspired much of the national and international interest in the sport, which allows leagues from around the world to participate for a fee that helps further promote the sport. The next items on the agenda for Joseph and his new twist on the game of softball are to invest in improvements for their leased warehouse, and promote corporate team-building events Arena Softball currently operates with two softball fields, batting cages, pitching tunnels, concessions, video arcade, pro shop and a baseball academy. They offer softball leagues, field rentals, birthday parties, special events and corporate team-building, with 106 teams playing and 800 people visiting the arena every day.
To view the full article in the Sacramento Business Journal, go to http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2008/03/03/story9.html?page=1.
For more information about this new take on softball, visit www.arenasoftball.com.
About Arena Softball:
Arena Softball, the brainchild of Greg Joseph, is a new twist on the old favorite, with a regulation softball diamond and all of the softball skills everyone is used to. The twist is a tight spring loaded net that encloses the entire field, so every hit is in play. There are no foul balls, no more standing in the outfield with no action, careening balls are played off the net, and outfielders have the ability to throw runners out. Double plays, and even triple plays, are always within reach. And with just 40 feet of outfield, everyone stays with the action.
To make the game even more fun, the scoring has been modified and one or two of the rules have been changed, but everyone gets the hang of these rules within a couple of innings. It's a game for the young and not so young, for men and women, and it's a game that everyone can play, no matter what their skill levels are. It's a game that people love instantly, and come back to play again.
