2026 World Baseball Classic matchups are set. Here are the games at Miami’s loanDepot park
The field for the 2026 World Baseball Classic is set.
World Baseball Classic, Inc. on Wednesday announced the four pools for the 20-team tournament and thus the bracketing for how the multiround event will unfold.
Miami’s loanDepot park, home of the Miami Marlins, will once again play an integral role in the tournament by hosting in every phase of the event — pool play, quarterfinals, semifinals and the championship.
For the Miami portion of the tournament, action begins with pool play from March 6-11, with loanDepot park hosting a five-team field of Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands, Israel and Nicaragua. The teams will play in a round-robin format, with each team playing the remaining four teams in the pool.
The top two teams from the Miami bracket, Pool D, will advance to the quarterfinals on March 13 and 14 to face the two teams that advance from Pool C, a group that consists of Japan, Australia, Korea, Czechia and Chinese Taipei and will begin the tournament in Tokyo. The Pool D winner will face the Pool C runner-up, and the Pool C winner will face the Pool D runner-up.
The semifinals will be on March 15 and 16, with the championship set for March 17.
The other half of the bracket is as follows:
Pool A, in San Juan, Puerto Rico: Puerto Rico, Cuba, Canada, Panama and Colombia
Pool B, in Houston: The United States, Mexico, Italy, Great Britain and Brazil
The quarterfinals between the four teams that advance from these pools will take place in Houston.
This is the second consecutive tournament that loanDepot park will factor into every stage of the World Baseball Classic.
During the 2023 tournament, loanDepot park hosted 15 games — 10 in pool play, two quarterfinals, the two semifinals and the championship game — with a combined announced attendance of 475,269 for an average of 31,684.6 fans per game. Nine of the 15 games had more than 35,000 people, including 36,098 for the championship between the United States and Japan.
This story was originally published April 9, 2025 at 12:29 PM.
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