Yesterday, we reported how average attendance figures were broken down for the first-round of the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classic, and the findings showed that there is an overwhelming increase in interest worldwide.

Today, more attendance and television ratings info has been made available via World Baseball Classic, Inc.

• Round One attendance in 2009 surpassed the attendance from Round One of the 2006 World Baseball Classic by approximately 38%. More than 450,000 fans attended Round One games in 2009 compared with just over 326,000 fans for the inaugural World Baseball Classic.
• The Tokyo Dome recorded three sellouts in the first round, selling out each of the three Japan games on March 5th against China, March 7th against Korea and March 9th against Korea.
• Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico drew a sellout crowd of 19,483 on March 9th for the game between Puerto Rico and the Netherlands, and duplicated the feat with 19,501 fans in attendance for a rematch between the teams in the Pool D championship game on March 11th.
•  Saturday’s game between the United States and Canada drew 43,000 fans to the Rogers Centre. Only three games between the Blue Jays and Yankees, and three games between the Jays and Red Sox had a higher attendance at the venue over the last year.
• Toronto’s Rogers Centre set a single-day merchandise sales record for a non-World Series baseball event on March 7th, during the opening day of Pool C which featured the United States taking on Canada and Italy vs. Venezuela.
• The game between the United States and Canada on ESPN on Saturday, March 7th drew a 1.4 rating with 1,850,000 viewers tuning in. It was the third-most watched sports telecast on cable last week.
• Sunday night’s game between the United States and Venezuela posted a 2.0 rating with 2,645,000 viewers tuning in, ranking as the most watched World Baseball Classic game ever, eclipsing the 2006 second round game between Mexico and the U.S. which was seen by 2,458,000 people. In addition, it was the most watched sporting event on basic cable for the week.
• Saturday night’s game between Japan and Korea delivered a 37.8 rating in Japan, topping the 28.2 for the tournament opener on Thursday to rank as the highest-rated sports telecast in that country since the 2006 World Baseball Classic Final between Japan and Cuba (43.4), including the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
• Domestic television ratings for the 2009 World Baseball Classic Round One games broadcast on ESPN averaged a 1.3 rating, up over 40% from 2006. The four games averaged 1,745,000 viewers, up almost 90% compared to 2006 Round One games.
• Five of the 2009 World Baseball Classic Round One games were the highest-rated non-soccer events ever broadcast on ESPN Deportes, including the March 10th contest between Cuba and Australia which posted a 3.3 rating, the station’s highest-rated Round One game.

Source: World Baseball Classic, Inc.

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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ESPN’s multimedia coverage of the 2009 World Baseball Classic is off to a strong start, with first-round game coverage on ESPN (four telecasts) averaging a 1.3 rating (up 44 percent), 1,300,000 households (up 57 percent) and 1,745,000 viewers (up 88 percent).  At this point in 2006, ESPN’s World Baseball Classic games averaged a 0.9 rating, 829,000 households and 930,000 viewers (two telecasts).   

Team USA’s Sunday night (March 8) game against Venezuela posted 1,943,000 households and 2,645,000 viewers to become the most-viewed World Baseball Classic telecast ever.  The corresponding 2.0 rating matched ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball average rating for 2008.  The 2.0 rating was the second highest-rated World Baseball Classic game ever, trailing only a 2.1 rating for a second-round game between Team USA and Mexico in 2006.

The World Baseball Classic has also led to impressive audience growth for ESPN Deportes and ESPN360.com.

ESPN Deportes

• Cuba vs. Australia on Tuesday, March 10, delivered a 3.3 rating to become the network’s highest-rated non-soccer event ever (previously, the Mexico/Venezuela Caribbean World Series game, Feb. 6, 2009, posted a 2.2 rating);
• The six highest-rated non-soccer events on ESPN Deportes are all World Baseball Classic games;
• Tuesday, March 10, was ESPN Deportes’ most-viewed day ever, delivering 71,000 Hispanic household impressions (the previous high was June 29, 2008, the day of the Euro 2008 final, with 63,000 Hispanic household impressions).
• Live World Baseball Classic games are averaging a 1.5 rating, 65,000 households and 89,000 viewers.

ESPNdeportes.com

• The World Baseball Classic helped drive ESPNdeportes.com to its biggest traffic day ever (Wednesday, March 11), with more than 9.6 million minutes spent and nearly 5.6 million page views.

ESPN360.com

• USA vs. Canada (Saturday, March 7) was the most-viewed event of the day;
• Fans have watched an average of 41 minutes per stream for World Baseball Classic games.

ESPN.com

• There have been 1.9 million views of World Baseball Classic-related video.

Upcoming ESPN World Baseball Classic Coverage

ESPN’s second-round coverage will lead off with several intriguing matchups:

(From Miami)

• The Cinderella Netherlands team, which upset the Dominican Republic twice in the first round, facing Venezuela Saturday, March 14, at 1 p.m. on ESPN Deportes;
• Team USA – looking to avenge its unexpected second-round exit in 2006 –meeting Puerto Rico Saturday, March 14, at 8 p.m. on ESPN Deportes.

(From San Diego)

• Japan – the defending champion – meeting the winner of the Mexico/Cuba first-round game Sunday, March 15, at 4 p.m.  (If Cuba defeats Mexico and plays Japan, it would be a rematch of the 2006 World Baseball Classic final);
• The loser of the Mexico/Cuba game playing Korea Sunday, March 15, at 11 p.m. on ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN360.com.

Gary Thorne (first two games) and Dan Shulman (remaining games) will provide play-by-play for ESPN’s coverage from San Diego, joined by analysts Orel Hershiser and Steve Phillips.  Dave O’Brien will call ESPN telecasts from Miami with analyst Rick Sutcliffe.

Ernesto Jerez will call ESPN Deportes telecasts from Miami, with analyst Candy Maldonado and reporter Guillermo Celis.  Fernando Alvarez will provide commentary for the ESPN Deportes telecasts from San Diego, with analyst Carlos Baerga and reporter Jaime Motta.  Additional content is available via ESPNdeportes.com, along with reports on ESPN.com from Enrique Rojas.

Select Read More to see the upcoming ESPN World Baseball Classic Broadcast schedule

They love their baseball in Japan, even if Ichiro is in a major slump.

The World Baseball Classic opening game between China and Japan played on Thursday night in Tokyo, Japan drew a 28.2 television rating, the highest rated sporting event on Japan television this year edging out the “Eki-Den” road race on January 3 (27.7). The rating, which was the exact same as Game Seven of the Japan Series last year, was the highest for any baseball game in Japan since the final game of the 2006 World Baseball Classic between Japan and Cuba which drew a 43.4 television rating.

Source: World Baseball Classic, Inc.

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.

Don't forget to register and log in on The Biz of Baseball site to get updates via your in-box, and see information only logged in members can see.

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When the provisional rosters for the upcoming World Baseball Classic were released in mid-January, it was understood that some players would no longer be set to play by the time the festivities would kick off at the beginning of March.

If you have been keeping track through the injury reports, you will see that several U.S. players will not be representing their country due to various strains and stresses. Add in that several clubs have forced some players off rosters, and the list of players that will eventually suit up this year will be far different.

With the first game of Pool A set to throw out the first pitch of the WBC three days from now on Thurs., March 5 the rosters are pretty much set.

Select Read More to see the most recent players for the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

World Baseball Classic, Inc. today announced the umpires selected for all 2009 World Baseball Classic games.

Thirty-six (36) umpires, spanning nine of the countries competing in the tournament, have been assigned to World Baseball Classic games. Umpire crews will be comprised equally of both Major League Baseball umpires and international umpires. Four-umpire crews will work the games of the first two rounds and six-man crews will be assigned to the games of the Semi-Finals and Final.

Twenty-one (21) of the 36 World Baseball Classic umpires are full-time members of the Major League staff, including crew chiefs Derryl Cousins, Dana DeMuth and Joe West. Also among the choices are four members of Nippon Professional Baseball (Minoru Nakamura, Masato Tomoyose, Hitoshi Watarida and Masami Yoshikawa) and two members of the Korean Baseball Organization (Seong Hoon Moon and Seok Hwan Oh).

Select Read More to see the umpires for WBC 2009