With the first round of the World Baseball Classic in the books, “classic” may be a fitting title as attendance has been up across the board for the event.

The 24-games in the first round of this year’s event averaged 18,893 fans, up 38.8 percent from 13,609 in '06, the last time the WBC was held.

Tokyo Dome saw an average attendance of 28,352, up 68.5 percent from 2006. Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Puerto Rico averaged 14,450, up 16.4 percent from an average of 12,412 for the last WBC Hiram Bithorn hosted in the first round.

In Japan, the near insanity that lead up to the WBC games (team buses needed a police escort to get through crowds when the team was preparing for the WBC), was followed by the first-round games in Tokyo Dome. The top three most-attended '09 WBC games to date were the three games featuring Japan at the Tokyo Dome, while U.S.-Canada ranked fourth with 42,314 fans and Australia-Mexico ranked fifth with 20,831 fans.

Select Read More to see attendance comparison from ’06 to ‘09

 NOTE: * = The six first-round games in Arizona for the '06 WBC were split between Scottsdale Stadium and Chase Field.

Source: SportsBusiness Daily

Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus, and is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network.

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