World Baseball Classic returns in 2023, and loanDepot park takes center stage

It was delayed by two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but loanDepot park is going to be center stage in one of baseball’s signature events.

The World Baseball Classic returns in March 2023, and the Miami Marlins’ home ballpark will be involved in every step of the month-long tournament that starts March 8 and continues through the championship game on March 21.

loanDepot park is one of four venues for the opening-round pool play, hosting the five-team pod of Puerto Rico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Israel and a final to-be-determined qualifying team from March 11-15. It will also host one of two four-team quarterfinal rounds March 17 and 18. That four-team grouping will consist of the top two teams from the first-round pool that plays at loanDepot park (Pool D) and the two teams that advance from Pool C (the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Canada and a to-be-determined qualifying team) that is being held at Phoenix’s Chase Field.

The semifinals are set for March 19-20 and the championship on March 21 — with all three of those games being played at loanDepot park.

San Diego’s Petco Park (2006), Los Angeles’ Dodgers Stadium (2009 and 2017) and San Francisco’s AT&T Park (2013, now called Oracle Park) were the sites for the previous four World Baseball Classic championships. Puerto Rico’s Hiram Bithorn Stadium is the only other ballpark that has hosted multiple rounds of a single World Baseball Classic, doing so in 2006 when it was a venue for the first and second rounds.

“Along with our fans, partners and the entire South Florida community, we are honored Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association have selected loanDepot park to host all three rounds of the 2023 World Baseball Classic,” Marlins chairman and principal owner Bruce Sherman said in a press release. “We look forward to welcoming fans from across the globe to loanDepot park to cheer on many of the top players in the game taking part in this prestigious event.”

It matches the plan that was originally supposed to unfold in 2021, but COVID-19 forced the cancellation of that iteration of the World Baseball Classic.

MARLINS’ WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC HISTORY

loanDepot park, which opened in 2012 on the site of the former Orange Bowl in Little Havana and was named Marlins Park until last year, has previously hosted portions of each of the past two World Baseball Classics.

In 2017, the Marlins’ home ballpark was a site for the first round of pool play, hosting the United States, Canada, Colombia and Dominican Republic. The U.S. went 2-1 in the round-robin portion, winning 3-2 against Colombia in 10 innings, losing 7-5 to the Dominican Republic and shutting out Canada 8-0 to finish runner-up in the pool and advance to the second round. The United States won the World Baseball Classic that year, a first for the team.

The ballpark also hosted one of the two pools in the double-elimination second round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic, with the field featuring the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Italy and the United States. Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic advanced out of the pool to the semifinals and met in the championship, with the Dominican Republic winning 3-0 in the final.

Miami Gardens’ Dolphin Stadium, now called Hard Rock Stadium, was also one of two sites for the second round of pool play for the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

THE TOURNAMENT FORMAT

The World Baseball Classic, essentially the World Cup of baseball, is an international baseball tournament sanctioned by the World Baseball Softball Confederation and put on in conjunction with MLB and the MLB Players Association. This is the fifth installment of the tournament, which began in 2006 and since 2009 has taken place every four years.

A record 20 teams are participating in the 2023 tournament, which consists of three rounds.

In Round 1, teams are divided into four equal pools of five teams and play one game against each team in their bracket. The two teams with the best win-loss records in each pool advance to the quarterfinals.

In addition to Miami and Phoenix, the other two host sites for the first round are Tokyo and Taichung, Taiwan. Tokyo’s pool includes Japan, Korea, Australia, China and a to-be-determined qualifier team. The Taiwan pool consists of Chinese Taipei, Netherlands, Cuba, Italy and a to-be-determined qualifier.

The eight remaining teams are then grouped into two, four-team brackets and compete in a double-elimination tournament, meaning a team is eliminated from the competition after it loses two games. Tokyo and Miami are the host sites for this portion of the tournament. The winner and runner-up in each bracket advances to the championship site — in the case of the 2023 tournament, loanDepot park.

Once there, it’s win or go home. The semifinals are one-game playoffs, with the winners advancing to face each other in a winner-take-all championship match.