2009 WBC to Be Held in Toronto

WBC announced yesterday that six games will be held at the Rogers Centre.

The schedule has not been hammered out yet but the tournament, fortunately will be held as a double knock-out format instead of a dreaded round robin with a runs for or plus/minus tie breaker…terrible for baseball. A double knock-out gives a team two lives. They have to lose twice, usually to different teams to be eliminated.

I am sure Toronto will accept the WBC. The games should be close to sold out for the Canadian games (hopefully setting a WBC record in the process). USA, Venezuela and Italy will join Canada in Toronto between March 8-12 2009.

The WBC will also play a bracket in Mexico City for the first time. Brackets will be played at Hiram Bitorn Stadium and the Tokyo Dome. One subsequent round and semi-finals and finals will be played in either San Diego or Los Angeles.

Personally I am surprised the WBC is returning to Japan. Attendance at the Tokyo Dome was poor in 2006. Also, returning to SoCal for the finals seems to be a safe bet. PETCO Park was sold out for the playoff round in 2006. However, the choice of the venues, overall, are fairly conservative. Donald Fehr believes that baseball is branching out and reaching a wider market. Mr. Fehr is a wise man and he should know that baseball is firmly established in Toronto, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Japan and California.

With the political situation perhaps changing in Cuba, perhaps the undecided second round could be played in Havana. Also, the Olympic Baseball tournament in China may be a great success and may deem a more appropriate venue to play the Far-Eastern bracket. It would be more worldly as well to have high level professional baseball to be held in Europe or Australia for the first time. Baseball, like always, takes the route of least resistance.