A view of Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium on November 28, 2021 in Taichung, Taiwan. (Photo by Gene Wang/Getty Images)
The World Baseball Softball Confederation on Monday announced the 2024 Premier 12 tournament will be held from November 10-24, 2024.
The tournament will be played after the regular seasons in Major League Baseball, Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, Chinese Professional Baseball League, Nippon Professional Baseball, and the Korean Baseball Organization.
The opening round of the Premier 12 will be from November 10-18. The Super Round will be held at the Tokyo Dome from November 21-23, followed by the bronze medal and gold medal games, which are scheduled for November 24 at the Tokyo Dome.
Group A will be held in the Americas from November 10-14 and Group B will take place in Taipei City from November 13-18.
No venue has been announced yet for the Americas region. Taipei City has two stadiums that host two teams in the Chinese Professional Baseball League. Hsinchu Baseball Stadium is the home of the Wei Chuan Dragons and Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium is the home of the Fubon Guardians could be possible venues for the Premier 12 tournament next year.
According to a report by Lee I-chia of the Taipei Times on June 26, “The Taipei City Government operated from Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an would strive to hold international events at the Taipei Dome stated at his press conference, after a city councilor questioned the feasibility of renting the venue to local sports teams.”
The Taipei Dome broke ground in October 2011. The venue can hold 40,000 seating capacity for baseball games, which is the largest of the Chinese Professional League teams’ stadiums.
The Taipei Dome will have an opportunity to host WBSC age group international regional and senior events in the near future, including tournaments such as the World Baseball Classic in 2026 and the Premier 12.
The field dimensions for baseball will be configured withthe left field and right field lines at 334 feet from home plate and center field will be 400 feet.
In the same article, Lee I-chia of the Taipei Times wrote, “The Taipei Dome has a capacity of more than 40,000 people. For comparison, the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium has a capacity of about 20,000 people and a rent of NT$45,000 to NT$160,000 per game, the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City has a capacity of about 12,000 people and a rent of NT$10,000 to NT$30,000 per game, and the Tianmu Baseball Stadium in Taipei has a capacity of about 10,000 people and a rent of NT$4,000 to NT$15,000 per game.”
Other events that are on the World Baseball Softball Confederation schedules during the international baseball calendar year cycle in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Oceania regions will have an impact on the next rankings release on December 31, 2023 along with concluding the top 12 teams that will be finalized at the end of this year to participate in the Premier 12 tournament.
The World Baseball rankings were last updated on August 15, 2023. A graphic with the top 12 nations in the World Baseball Rankings is below this article.
Upcoming events that could impact the next World Baseball Rankings include the 2023 European Championships, which will take place in the Czech Republic from September 24 to October 1, the Pan American Games, which will be held at the Baseball and Softball Center in Cerrillos, Chile from October 18-28, the Caribbean Cup at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, Puerto Rico from October 1-8, the Asian Games at the Shaoxing Baseball Softball Sports Culture Center in Hangzhou, China from October 1-7, the Asian Baseball Professional Championship from November 16-19 at the Tokyo Dome, and the Asian Baseball Championship from December 3-9 in Taiwan at the Taipei Dome.
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic pausing the rankings on March 18, 2020, the international baseball calendar cycle did not label a full set of international age group events that delayed the release and set back of the World Rankings from the 2020 Olympics moving to 2021 and 2021 World Baseball Classic being rescheduled for 2023.
The Premier 12 tournament was supposed to happen at the end of this year but was moved to next year due to the schedule change alignments of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The 2019 Premier 12 points will expire right before Thanksgiving as the first international senior event to redirect in from the World Baseball Rankings.
The international baseball calendar cycle will have an impact from when the last international senior, age and regional events reoccur every four years.
The last Premier 12 tournament in 2019 had an impact on the top three finishers qualifying for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, but will not have any impact this time around for the 2024 Summer Olympics. With the World Baseball Classic happening in 2026, the Premier 12 will have to be scheduled for 2027 due to implications of baseball and softball returning to the Summer Olympics in 2028.
Intercontinental senior events such as the Premier 12, the Olympics and the World Baseball Classic cannot happen in the same international baseball calendar year cycle.
Baseball and softball will not take place in the 2024 Olympics due to the International Olympic Committee replacing both sports from countered votes with sports such as golf, rugby sevens, climbing, skateboarding, surfing, and breakdancing as an olympic event.
Baseball and softball will return for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The World Baseball Rankings calendar cycle will only change once between Dec. 31, 2023 and Dec. 31, 2024, following the Premier 12.
All listed streaming services will be provided on the World Baseball Softball Confederation website and social media pages in the next few months.
Past Listed Venues and Champions for previous Premier 12 Tournaments
2015 Premier 12
Group A – Douliu Baseball Stadium, Douliu, Taiwan
Group A and Quarterfinals – Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, Taichung, Taiwan
Group B – Tianmu Baseball Stadium, Tianmu, Taiwan and Sapporo Dome, Sapporo Japan
Group B and Quarterfinals – Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium, Taoyuan, Taiwan
Semifinals and Finals – Tokyo Dome
Medal Winners
Gold – South Korea
Silver – United States
Bronze – Japan
2019 Premier 12
Group A – Estadio Panamericano, Jalisco, Mexico
Group B – Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium, Taichung, Taiwan and Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium, Taoyuan, Taiwan
Group C – Gocheok Sky Dome, Seoul, South Korea
Super Round – ZOZO Marine Stadium, Chiba, Japan
Super Round and Finals – Tokyo Dome
Medal Winners
Gold – Japan
Silver – South Korea
Bronze – Mexico
