World Baseball Classic Wraps Up

Japan defeated Korea 5-3 in the World Baseball Classic championship game on Monday. (Getty Images) The World Baseball Classic completed its second edition on Monday with increased attendance figures and television ratings.

Japan won the 16-team tournament once again on Monday in a 5-3 win over Korea in the championship game before a World Baseball Classic-record crowd of 54,846 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. The Japanese beat Cuba in the finals in the inaugural event in 2006.

Most opening round venues, as well as Dodger Stadium, had a larger attendance than in ’06. The tournament achieved an attendance figure of 800,778 for the 39 contests that were played, an increase from 737,112 in the previous edition.

A total of 452,744 watched the first-round games in Tokyo, Toronto, Mexico City and San Juan, Puerto Rico -- an increase from 326,629 in ’06. The semifinal contests attracted 87,008 spectators, up from 83,907 in the inaugural tournament.

Tokyo led the way among the four first-round venues with 169,482. Host Japan’s two games against Korea and its contest against China all sold out in the 42,000-seat Tokyo Dome.

Only the round two games showed a decrease from the previous event, dipping to 206,180 for the contests in Miami and San Diego from the 283,880 recorded three years ago.

The World Baseball Classic is also attracting more of a television A total of 800,778 spectators attended the 39 games in the World Baseball Classic, including a record 54,486 for the Japan-Korea championship game on Monday. (Getty Images) audience than last time, based on the early numbers that have come in from the first-round games.

Through the first four games broadcast on ESPN, the WBC averaged a 1.3 rating and 1.745 million viewers, an increase of 44.4 and 87.6 percent respectively for the same period in ’06.

The game on March 8 between the United States and Venezuela became the most watched game in the World Baseball Classic’s brief history with a 2.0 rating and 2,645,000 viewers. It was also the most-watched sporting event on basic cable for the week.

The WBC has also seen a growth in the amount of sponsorship for the event, with the number of sponsors growing to 56 from 24 in ’06. AT&T, Best Buy, McDonald’s and PepsiCo are among the corporations sponsoring the tournament.

The growth of the World Baseball Classic in 2013 may extend to the number of teams, with tournament officials contemplating the increase of participating countries from 16 to 24.

MLB commissioner Bud Selig is pleased with how the WBC turned out this year and is optimistic about the continued growth of the event.

“I’m very Television ratings for this year’s World Baseball Classic have improved over the inaugural tournament in 2006. (Getty Images) happy about where we are,” Selig said. “I think this is tremendous. Long after I’m gone, this is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and you can count on that.”

International Baseball Federation President Harvey Schiller was also encouraged by the success of this year’s tournament.

"The World Baseball Classic has been terrific this year, with The Netherlands beating the Dominican Republic and Italy beating Canada and Australia beating Mexico," Schiller said. "I mean, it really shows how the game has grown these last few years. The attendance is up. The international viewing is way up. The Japanese viewing has exceeded not only the previous Classic but all the Olympics."

Written by Greg Oshust.