Baseball Australia has launched a five-year plan to boost participation ©Getty Images

Baseball Australia is seeking to further the sport's development with the launch of its National Participation Plan, which is due to be in operation from 2022 to 2027.

The initiative is centred around three main strategic pillars - playing the game, putting on the game, and facilitating the game.

The first focuses on sustainable growth, quality of experience and player retention, and compelling products with the headline measure of success marked by the amount of people participating in clubs.

"Putting on the game" hopes to see a growth in the number of active volunteers, coaches, umpires and scorers while the final pillar aims for the number of dedicated participation staff to increase.

Baseball Australia has worked with its seven regional member associations to outline the roles played in implementing the plan.

"During the process we have identified the themes and then prioritised them based on what will see us able to provide amazing experiences for everyone participating in baseball," said Baseball Australia chief executive Glenn Williams.

"We have had a collaborative approach to developing the plan, working closely with our state and territory partners, and this plan maps out how we will work together to help grow the sport we all love."

Baseball Australia has focused its participation plan around three core pillars to drive growth ©Baseball Australia
Baseball Australia has focused its participation plan around three core pillars to drive growth ©Baseball Australia

In order to deliver the plan, the governing body has identified three enablers that are said to be critical to success but are outside of its participation workforce.

Board and governance support, marketing and communications, and data, systems and insights have been labelled as crucial.

Delivery principles of "support and empower", "aligned and united", "insight-driven", and "customer-focussed" are also set to be key components.

"The Australian Baseball National Participation plan is a document designed to set the platform of participation growth of baseball in Australia," said Williams.

"The aim of the document is to identify and articulate the priority items that support participation in Australia and define how we can collectively address these items."

The programme will come to an end a year before the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games which could see baseball feature as a medal event for the sixth time.