BANGOR – The Senior League World Series has brought some of the world’s top young baseball players to Mansfield Stadium each of the last five summers for a week of international competition with a championship at stake.

Beginning this August, the rest of the world will be able to share in some of the memories those players have taken home from the Queen City.

As part of a new eight-year, $30.1 million contract extension between Little League International and ESPN announced Thursday, the cable television network will televise the Senior League World Series championship game each year through 2014.

“We’re very pleased that this is happening,” said Senior League World Series tournament director Mike Brooker of Bangor.

Little League baseball and softball sanctions world championship competition in four age groups: Little League (ages 11-12), Junior League (13-14), Senior League (14-16), and Big League (16-18).

While the 11-12 division has dominated media coverage since the games first were televised, the contract extension will expand national TV coverage to include all eight baseball and softball world series championship games. Overall, more than 390 tournament games will be televised nationally through the end of the contract in 2014, which will mark the 75th anniversary of Little League.

At least 49 games will be televised annually on ESPN’s family of networks each year starting this August. That includes, for the first time, the Senior League World Series baseball final from Bangor, scheduled this year for Aug. 18.

The start time and the specific network that will televise the SLWS final haven’t been determined, but the motivation for adding the coverage in all divisions is to broaden the appeal of the Little League International franchise beyond the age 11-12 division, particularly the older age divisions that must compete nationally against the likes of more established Babe Ruth and American Legion baseball programs.

“[This contract] brings [those divisions] to a greater audience and, hopefully, more people will ultimately participate,” said Stephen D. Keener, president and chief executive officer of Little League baseball and softball. “Little League baseball has given us a distinction – a leadership role in the universe of sports. TV has helped us advance to that position. It elevates us in the public eye and makes [Little League] a little more important to them.”

“Our goal, selfishly, is to promote our program. It’s a benefit to the local area to have TV there,” he added.

Brooker sees the decision to televise the SLWS baseball final as locally helpful on a number of fronts. While the tournament won’t receive additional funds from Little League International from the contract extension, the added exposure looms as another incentive for local and regional businesses to help subsidize the event that brings together eight championship teams from throughout the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe-Middle East-Africa, and Asia-Pacific.

“From a completely selfish standpoint, it should help locally with sponsorship dollars, and that has always been the biggest obstacle to overcome,” Brooker said. “Last year the tournament cost more than $150,000, and we need to raise that amount annually. One of our objectives is to give participants the experience of a lifetime and to run a first-class operation.”

The telecast also should provide Bangor with some positive publicity as such broadcasts typically include features about the host communities.

“For Greater Bangor, just to get this exposure on a national basis should be beneficial,” Brooker said. “I’ve always believed that once ESPN gets here and sees our facility, they’re going to be awfully happy.”

City officials would like to see such publicity reap an economic benefit, but that might be hard to measure in the short term beyond any jump in attendance that stems from heightened interest in the SLWS due to its newfound status as a nationally televised event.

“It’s hard to quantify the type of impact something like this would have directly on the city,” said Bangor economic development director Rod McKay, who acknowledged that August already is a busy time of year for the region’s hospitality industry.

He did suggest that a longer-term economic impact might result from a scenario in which someone exposed to Bangor through the telecast found the city to their liking and that exposure eventually led that person to relocate a business to the area.

McKay said there was an additional educational benefit in just letting people not familiar with the region know there is more to Maine than such staples as L.L. Bean and Bangor author Stephen King.

“And if a million people watch the game on TV and a thousand people decided to come to Bangor one day as a result, that’s a great benefit,” added Brooker.

Brooker anticipates some changes to the press box facilities at Mansfield Stadium in order to accommodate the television crew, as well as the print and electronic media that have covered the tournament since it was moved to Bangor in 2002.

In addition, the local tournament committee will have additional responsibilities in working with ESPN and Little League officials to make sure the telecast runs smoothly.

“I’ve jokingly told them to be careful of what you wish for because along with the TV coverage comes extra work,” Keener said. “There’s an added burden to accommodate a TV network being there.

“Logistically, it offers up new challenges. There will be expectations of the local folks there to work with the production crew, to accommodate their needs appropriately.”

Brooker sees those duties as a small price to pay for the increased awareness of the SLWS that will come with national television exposure.

“One place where it’s going to help is to make the tournament more known locally, regionally, statewide and nationwide,” he said. “We’ve had the tournament here for five years, and I still have people come up to me and say, ‘Senior League? Is that for players 65 years old?'”

Come this August, folks who tune in to ESPN should know better.