Attendance and Television Ratings Shine for '09 World Baseball Classic

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 th...