Can the WBC be like NCAA March Madness?

[Dravecky43]

So I was wondering, how many of you think that the WBC could turn into a major event like NCAA hoops' March Madness? I mean, you have a bracket format, and maybe in 20 years it could be a major success and everyone could have their office bracket pools, right?

[ElCaminoSS]

Itd be fantastic but unfortunately teams players drop out and it kinda ruins it

[Mattingly]

All depends. In college hoops, the fabled "No 1 vs No 2" thing is always the biggest drawing match. When they have their March Madness playoffs to determine who is the king of the hill, the Men's game dominates, but the Women have also had their share of attention. I think that Connecticut's UConn Huskies (and Lady Huskies, if I remember correctly) both won just a few years ago.

The players as well as the teams they represent would all have to be known. Right now, I don't see that.

In college ball, people will naturally root for the school they graduated from, or at least attended for awhile. In the WBC, while there are many people from Japan, Dominical Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Korea, Venezuela, etc, to my konwledge, those countries' baseball teams aren't as directly associated with them, unlike UNLV, UNC and other famous NCAA basketball colleges with their teams.

If the WBC were to make such an impact, I would expect to see excellent games being played. The public would definitely have to be into it, as well as demanding it. A good indication would be the sports bars where weekend football was often shown. If it's also shown on ESPN and written about in the major sports media, that would also improve its marketability of well-known players and the teams they belong to.

It can be done. However, it would take a very large level of media exposure to attain such a lofty goal. At the end, the true excitement wouldn't necessarily be in the advertisement and publicity, but in the quality of the games themselves, as well as the performance of the players involved.

[Mike D.]

I'm not sure if it'll get to the point of being like March Madness, with all the gambling and what not, but I think it could get popular, especially outside the U.S.

This is the first year for the tournament, and people have said a lot about players dropping out, but I think if this year is a success and it becomes an annual event, more players and owners will get behind it.

[Boston Boxer]

I say the only way for the WBC to be a success is to drop the interleague play and All Star game, and play the WBC then. I dont really care for interleague and the All Star game (in every sport) is a joke and should be like an award, rather than a game.

[sschirmer]

In a word, no.

[atlbravesfan]

WBC will NEVER be like March Madness. I don't think people in this country, for the most part, care if Japan plays Korea or Canada plays South Africa.....much less who wins.

[Mattingly]

I say the only way for the WBC to be a success is to drop the interleague play and All Star game, and play the WBC then. I dont really care for interleague and the All Star game (in every sport) is a joke and should be like an award, rather than a game.

I agree with you about dropping Selig's Interleague thing, but if you dropped this, then AL teams would play other AL instead, and NL teams would play other NL teams instead. It's not like they'd just cut 20 games from the schedule.

The All-Star break only takes up 3 days: rest, HR Derby, then the All-Star Game itself. I'm not too sure that would add much to the WBC's popularity with only 3 additional days.

To me, if they put this in the 1st week of November, then you may have better coverage, as it wouldn't interfere with anything. My issue here is that it's stuck in the middle of spring training when guys are stretching their muscles and getting back to the regular schedule. After pitchers and catchers report, then it's intra-team squads, then NL teams facing AL teams and such.

All this to me says it's about warming up for the main games, not really about being competitive. NCAA's March Madness seems to be at the end of their schedule (playoffs, I presume), so it's the best of the best facing one another. I think that to have that kind of excitement, at the end of the season would also be best.