World Baseball Classic, Inc. (WBCI) announced the dates and venues for the 2021 World Baseball Classic. The fifth installment of the WBC, which will be played from March 9-23, 2021, will take place at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taichung, Taiwan and the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium in Taoyuan, Taiwan; the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan; Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, in Phoenix, Arizona; and Marlins Park, home of the Miami Marlins, in Miami, Florida.
In 2021, the field of teams will expand to 20 for the first time in WBC history. The 16 teams that participated in the 2017 WBC – Australia, Canada, China, Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Israel, Italy, Japan, The Kingdom of the Netherlands, Korea, Mexico, Puerto Rico, United States, and Venezuela – will be invited to return for the 2021 iteration and will be joined by four teams advancing from the 2020 Qualifiers, which will be held in Tucson, Arizona from March 13-25. The 2021 WBC will feature pools of five teams in the first round for round-robin play. The top two teams in each of the four first round pools will advance to the quarterfinals, while the top two teams from each quarterfinal pool will advance to the Championship Round.
Taichung and Taoyuan will host Pool A contests at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium and Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium from March 9th-13th. This marks the second time that Taiwan will host WBC contests, joining 2013.
The Tokyo Dome, which has hosted pools in each of the previous four World Baseball Classics (2006, 2009, 2013 and 2017), will again be home to first round (Pool B) and quarterfinal games in 2021. The quarterfinals on March 16th-17th will feature the top two teams from Pool B along with the two teams advancing from Pool A in Taiwan.
Chase Field returns as a World Baseball Classic host in 2021 after serving as a first round venue in 2006 and 2013. The games for Pool C will be played from March 13-17.
Marlins Park, which has hosted games in each of the last two WBC tournaments, will become the first venue in event history to host games in all three rounds of a World Baseball Classic in the same year. Pool D of the first round will run from March 14-18. The North American quarterfinals, including the teams advancing from Pool C and D, will take place on March 19-March 20, while the semi-finals and finals will be played from March 21-23.
The World Baseball Classic is sanctioned by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) as the sport’s official National Team World Championship.