• By Jason Pan / Staff reporter

Sports supporters said they plan to boycott events organized by Bros Sports Marketing Co over Taiwan’s early exit from the World Baseball Classic (WBC) earlier this month.

Taiwan hosted Pool A of the WBC in Taichung from March 8 to 12, with all four of their games sold out.

Bros Sports reportedly secured the contract to organize the Pool A games for US$4.4 million. The company also received assistance from the Sports Administration, Taiwan’s CTBA baseball governing body and other government agencies.

Photo: CNA

Taiwan opened with a loss to Panama, then won the next two games over Italy and the Netherlands, but succumbed to Cuba 7-1 in a crucial last game on March 12. Ultimately, all five teams in Pool A won two games and lost two, resulting in a tiebreaker.

However, the key tiebreaker is runs allowed, and Taiwan allowed the most runs of any team in the group. Cuba and Italy took the top two spots, advancing to the quarter-finals in Japan.

Taiwanese supporters blamed their team’s loss on Bros Sports, because of the schedule on the last two days. Taiwan had to play the Netherlands on Saturday at 7pm, then had to take on Cuba the following day at noon.

Over the past week, supporters complained online that Taiwan lost because they did not get enough sleep before playing against a well-rested Cuba, who did not have a game on Saturday.

People also objected to high ticket prices, merchandise defects and delivery problems, there being too few entry and exit gates at the games, and a lack of safety controls, among other issues.

Bros Sports chief marketing officer Kao Wei-kai (高偉凱) fired back at “one-day-only fans” on Facebook on Sunday, saying they know nothing about sports.

He compared them to “feral dogs on the streets barking” at him, saying that he was in Japan, and would explain more when he was back in Taiwan.

People should not blame their team’s loss on scheduling, as is was negotiated with the WBC, Kao said.

“[Taiwan] lost out in the end… Could it be because their skills could not compete against the other teams? Is that too difficult to accept?” he said.

Kao’s comments riled up more people, who said that tickets for the Pool A games cost up to 10 times that of regular CPBL games, with the most expensive costing NT$3,200 (US$104.83) and tickets averaging NT$2,200.

“We are a private business, why can we not make a profit?” Kao said.

Asked about the company applying for subsidies from the Sports Administration, he said: “It is normal to apply for subsidies when hosting international competitions. We also had to pay fees to the CTBA and government agency executives.”

However, citing Independent Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書), people said that Bros Sports should not have applied for government subsidies, because it had already made more than NT$100 million in profit.

Ticket sales from WBC games in Taiwan totaled NT$160 million, while Bros Sports received NT$128 million in corporate sponsorship funding, for a total revenue of NT$288 million, Huang had said.

“Total expenditures added up to NT$185 million, so the company made a profit. Therefore the Sports Administration turned down Bros Sports’ application for a government subsidy,” Huang said.