Fans to be allowed at WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier stadiums; tickets to go on sale soon

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) announced today that Clover Park in St. Lucie County and The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach, Florida, will open gates with limited capacity for the WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier, which will be staged from 31 May and to 5 June, 2021.

Ticket sales for the 16 Olympic qualifier games in Florida will be launched soon.

“This is a great day for international baseball and international sport,” said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari. “I’m looking forward to seeing fans back in the stands at a WBSC event. Baseball supporters around the world -- as well as the players themselves -- have waited over 18 months for this moment. With less than 100 days to the Olympics, this qualifier will help build excitement for Games and be an important milestone on the road to Tokyo 2020.”

The WBSC Baseball Americas Qualifier will be the first official international baseball competition since the II WBSC Premier12 held in November 2019.

The eight-nation Olympic qualifier in Florida will observe rigorous COVID-19 health and safety standards and protocols.

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The competing participants will be split into two groups to start the qualifier:

Group A: No. 2 USA, No. 10 Dominican Republic, No. 11 Puerto Rico and No. 15 Nicaragua.

Group B: No. 8 Cuba, No. 9 Venezuela, No. 13 Canada and No. 14 Colombia.

After group play concludes, the top two finishers from each group will advance to the Super Round, where they will each play two games. Head-to-head contests among these teams from the opening round will carry over into the Super Round standings.

The team with the best Super Round record will be declared the winner and become the fifth National Team to advance to the six-team Tokyo Olympic baseball tournament, joining world No. 1 Japan, No. 3 Korea, No. 5 Mexico and No. 18 Israel.

The official game schedule of the Americas Olympic qualifier will be announced in an upcoming press release.