Venezuela's first World Baseball Classic crown came with the ?largest share of a record $37 million prize pool, Front Office Sports reported on Wednesday.
The run to the title, earned on Tuesday night with a 3-2 ?win over Team USA in Miami, concluded ?a ?tournament that offered compensation more than ?double the $15 million from the 2023 WBC.
Each of the 20 teams were guaranteed at ?least $750,000, to be split evenly between each country's baseball governing ?body and the players. Shares for coaches and staff came from the federation's ?portion.
The farther a ?team advanced in the tournament, the larger the payout.
Venezuela, per the ?report, collected $2.5 ?million for winning the championship, for a ?total of $6.75 million combined with money ?earned ?from earlier rounds.
So the Venezuelan players will get half, about $3.375 million ¡ª?broken down to about $112,500 per player, according to Front Office Sports' report.
While ?some players on Team Venezuela will earn at or close to the Major League Baseball minimum of $780,000 this season, as a whole the players will earn $187 million ?in ?the 2026 campaign. That averages to ?more than $6 million per player, according to the ?report.
MLB's tournament rights contract with Netflix in Japan, which the Front Office Sports report estimated to be worth more than $100 million, ?contributed to the boost in the prize pool.
The tournament also drew a total attendance of 1.62 million, a 24% increase from the 2023 WBC when Japan won the title.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.