WBC Was Great But It Can Be Even Better

By Ken Reed

I watched the entire Japan vs. USA World Baseball Classic (WBC) championship game and it was one of the best baseball games I’ve seen in terms of intensity, drama and pure fun. Shohei Ohtani vs. Mike Trout was the perfect way to end what was a very successful WBC, on and off the field.

Television ratings and overall excitement levels in Japan and Mexico were off the charts. USA TV ratings were also up significantly for the WBC compared to prior years. And consider the following social media tidbits:

• Nine of MLB’s top ten most-liked tweets of all time came from the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

• Ohtani’s strikeout of Trout to win the WBC is MLB’s most-liked tweet ever with 200,000 likes. That’s 170,000 more than their most popular non-WBC tweet (Astros 2022 World Series).

• Fox’s tweet about Japan’s WBC Championship win had 275,000 likes in 36 hours.

• Their previous record was just 20,000 likes, and their top 35 most-liked tweets all came during the last 2 weeks of this year’s WBC.

Despite all those positives, I have an idea that I think could take the WBC to the next level and create Super Bowl, World Cup and Olympics type excitement.

Here goes:

Finding the best time to hold the WBC has been an issue from the start. It remains the primary challenge for the WBC.

Here’s my plan for WBC 2026:

Play the early rounds at multiple sites in March — just like this year — and then have the semi-finals and finals during the All-Star break. No All-Star game that year. Two semi-final WBC games and the championship game in that five-day MLB break. Most players and pitchers would be in prime form. And it wouldn’t require a long break in the middle of the MLB season, as it would if the entire tournament was held in July.

In terms of the economics, every MLB team, as well as professional teams from other countries, would get X% of total WBC revenues. Organizations with players in the Final Four would get bonus revenues for each player from their organization in the Final Four (more money if their players make the final game.) The players themselves would also get bonuses if they play in the Final Four of the WBC.

Ratings for a World Baseball Final Four (there’s time to work on a better, more original, name) would be through the roof. I think MLB, as a whole, along with world-wide baseball associations and organizations, would love a revised version of the WBC, such as what’s proposed here, as it would be the ultimate marketing vehicle for the game of baseball on a global basis. The burst in baseball’s popularity resulting from WBC 2026 would, in turn, feed interest and ratings for MLB games and the World Series moving forward.

Finally, I think the MLB Players Association (as well as the players in other leagues) would also be on board, as the players that participated in this year’s WBC have come back to their countries and teams with strong positive feelings about this year’s WBC.

— Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans