By Cameron Atfield

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While the planned Logan Indoor Sports Centre would host Olympic and Paralympic events in 2032, Raven hoped to have the ballpark built in time to attract two of the higher-profile competitions to his city, particularly in a time zone friendly to baseball-mad Asian markets.

“There are two different strategies: one is we host a business and investment forum and I talk about slogans broadly, then at the end of it, I narrow in on the Olympic and the baseball opportunity,” he said.

“The second is when I start talking about baseball – half the room sits up a lot taller and listens more and then starts problem-solving. They start contributing ideas because they want baseball to be in the Olympics.

“You can see the difference from when I’m just going, ‘here’s our population numbers, here’s our growth figures, here are the industries we’re interested in’, and then pivot to baseball. All of a sudden you’ve got them – they’re keen, they’re leaning forward in their seats.”