Where and when will the 2023 World Baseball Classic be played?

The original World Baseball Classic was created in response to the IOC’s decision in 2005 to remove baseball as an Olympic sport. Modelled on FIFA’s World Cup, the idea was to hold the tournament every four years.

After a start where there was only a three-year gap between the first two WBC events, largely to prevent it from being held in the same year and competing with either the Olympics or the FIFA World Cup, it then settled into it’s four-year rotation for the second and third iterations.

With the event then established and looking forward to record participation, the world ground to a halt for the covid pandemic, postponing indefinitely the scheduled 2019 event.

After deliberations, the decision was held to simply cancel, rather than reschedule, the 2019 WBC and move on to the next four-year slot. With the decision to hold the World Baseball Classic in 2023, all that remained was to find host cities. Now, they have been announced.

Taichung, Tokyo, Phoenix, and Miami have won out as the four host cities for the event.

Play will open with Pool A games on March the 8th in the Taiwanese city and end with the Championship game in Miami on March 21.

As a newly-expanded format featuring 20 teams, all of the 2017 participants have received automatic bids and the remaining four spots will be decided by qualifying fixtures, which will begin in September 2022.

In the four-event history of the World Baseball Classic, there have been three champions, with current world number one ranked Japan the only country to have repeated. Reigning champions, the United States will be looking to join them with a repeat performance of their own.

The European leg of the qualifying games will be held at the Armin-Wolf-Arena in Regensburg, Germany the week of September 16 through to September 21 before moving on to Rod Carew National Stadium in Panama City, Panama for the week of September 30 to October 5.

Teams with automatic bids

Game schedule and locations

POOL A (March 8-13)

Host: Taichung, Taiwan (Intercontinental Baseball Stadium)

POOL B (March 9-13)

Host: Tokyo (Tokyo Dome)

POOL C (March 11-15)

Host: Phoenix (Chase Field)

POOL D (March 11-15)

Host: Miami (loanDepot park)

QUARTERFINALS

Host 1: Tokyo (Tokyo Dome)

When: March 15-16

Teams: Top 2 teams from Pool A and B

Host 2: Miami (loanDepot park)

When: March 17-18

Teams: Top 2 teams from Pool C and D

SEMIFINALS AND FINALS

Host: Miami (loanDepot park)

When: March 19-21