World Baseball Classic announces pool play, Miami gets the Dominican Republic and Venezuela

It has been a couple months since Major League Baseball announced that Miami would be a host site for the 2026 World Baseball Classic. But Wednesday, the WBC publicized the teams that will compete in pool play in South Florida.

The Dominican Republic, Israel, the Netherlands and Venezuela are set to field teams in loanDepot park from March 6 to March 11 in 2026. Another team that will emerge from the 2025 WBC qualifiers will also be added to the field. All five teams will be representing Pool D.

LoanDepot park will also host two quarterfinal games, both semifinal games and the championship game. The quarterfinal matches will include the top teams from Pool C— which includes Japan, Australia, South Korea and the Czech Republic.

The quarterfinals will be held March 13-14, the semifinals will March 15-16 and the final on March 17.

Given Miami’s large Dominican and Venezuelan populations, the entire event is expected to be highly attended.

Miami also hosted pool play and the knockout stages during the World Baseball Classic in 2023, where Japan defeated the United States 3-2 to emerge as the champion.

Japan is looking to repeat in 2026 under the guidance of Shohei Ohtani, while the United States will look to avenge its championship loss.

This story was originally published August 21, 2024 at 3:01 PM.