POULSBO — Kitsap County is one step closer to becoming the site of world series baseball.

The North Kitsap Babe Ruth baseball club is working on a bid to host the 2012 Babe Ruth World Series for 13-year-olds. Last week Babe Ruth League Inc., the national governing body for Babe Ruth baseball, announced it will send league commissioner Robert Faherty to visit Kitsap County on April 13 to assess the area as a possible tournament site.

“Now we know that Babe Ruth headquarters is serious about considering us as a World Series host,” North Kitsap Babe Ruth tournament director Brent Stenman wrote in an email.

The 10-team tournament would include a North Kitsap Babe Ruth team, as well as regional champions from all over the country. It would take place in August, at the Gene Lobe baseball fields at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds in Silverdale, tournament co-director Russ Barker said.

Poulsbo has its own baseball fields, at Snider Park on Viking Way, but Barker said the facilities do not have the capacity to hold the expected 1,000 spectators per game, and the grounds would need significant improvements to host a tournament of world series magnitude.

“We have to defer to the fields in the county that have been improved,” Barker said.

North Kitsap Babe Ruth hosted a regional championship for 18-year-olds at the Fairgrounds in 2008 and Barker said he received numerous compliments about the ballpark.

“The field is great,” he said. “It’s more than adequate for the age group of kids that would be playing there. We got a lot of comments from the teams that played there and said, ‘This is a really good facility.’”

Now Barker and Stenman are hoping Babe Ruth League will be just as impressed. They have reason to be optimistic. Soon after Barker attended a world series host training seminar in Jamestown, N.Y., last October, Faherty called Stenman to tell him the 2012 series was available.

Aside from acceptable fields, the team needs to prove it has the volunteer and community support necessary to host the tournament, along with proper accommodations and a place to hold an 800-person banquet. The team must also raise $45,000 to pay Babe Ruth League for the travel expenses of participating teams.

Barker and Stenman believe the local support exists, but they are still looking for more help. The team held a meeting for potential volunteers last month, and about 40 people pledged to assist with the tournament. Since then, Stenman said the number has approached 100.

“I’d love to get 150 if we could,” he said.

Stenman added that 75 families will be needed to host the visiting players.

If Babe Ruth League chooses the Fairgrounds for the 2012 world series, the North Kitsap club will have to raise the money needed to pull off the spectacle. Stenman said that could be as much as a $100,000 investment, including the $45,000 fee.

Despite the initial cost, Barker said the series would be a boon to local businesses.

“I think it’s a unique opportunity from an economic perspective,” he said. “A tournament like this easily introduces over a million dollars into the community.”

Even though the series would be played in Silverdale, the baseball club would try to focus the visitors’ attention on the North Kitsap area. Most host families will be in the Poulsbo area, and Stenman said he plans to print brochures that highlight hotels and restaurants in North Kitsap.

“We’re going to try and focus it in Poulsbo as much as we can,” he said.

Stenman and Barker first contacted Babe Ruth League, headquartered in New Jersey, about hosting the 2012 world series in the summer of 2008, after hosting the regional championship. The League’s regional commissioner was impressed with the Fairgrounds facilities, and recommended the club try for the world series.

Stenman, who coached two Babe Ruth teams in past world series in 2001 and 2006, said the tournament is difficult to describe, but it brings life and excitement to the host community.

“It’s almost surreal,” he said. “It’s a real festive, inviting atmosphere. It was something that everybody in town was taking part in.”

Barker and Stenman hope their enthusiasm will be contagious if Kitsap is chosen for the 2012 tournament.

“We’re pretty jazzed about this whole thing,” Barker said. “I’m really hoping that this will be an opportunity to reinvigorate community baseball.”