"The Greatest Hits"...KBO to Run to the 10 Million Spectators Will Be a Variant in Jang-Ma-Bi

Jul 09, 2024

A game between the Doosan Bears and the Lotte Giants at Jamsil Stadium on the 19th. a packed audience. Jamsil = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2024.05.19/

Will the unprecedented `10 million audience era' in Korean professional sports history come.

Attention is focusing on whether the 2024 KBO League, which begins its second-half schedule, will write a new history. It has already reached 6 million spectators before the end of the first half, and has succeeded in breaking the record short period. At this pace, expectations are growing that the era of the first-ever 10 million spectators will open, as well as breaking the record of 8.4 million,688 spectators written in 2017.

This season's box office fever, both quantitatively and qualitatively, is unusual.

In the meantime, baseball fever peaked in May, the point at which the early part of the season was completed, and from June to July, it turned to a gradual decline and then gradually increased from August. However, this season, the pace of increase in spectators has been steadily increasing every 18-19 days since the opening until the end of the first half. It failed to break the 2012 record of eight clubs until the time when the 5 million spectators exceeded the 5 million mark. However, this year's box office fever proved stronger as the timing of the 6 million audience was accelerated.

The match between the Hanwha Eagles and the SSG Landers at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on the 16th. It sold out for the 27th time this season. Daejeon = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2024.06.16/

The average attendance in the entire KBO League, which has played 418 games out of 720 games, is 14,491. It is encouraging that the average attendance of all 10 clubs exceeded 10,000. Even if the average number of spectators is large, it is quite meaningful that the light bulb group is showing an even distribution of box office, unlike in previous years, when the phenomenon of concentration on the metropolitan area and popular teams was large. In particular, it is noteworthy that non-metropolitan clubs, such as the KIA Tigers, who have the second-largest overall average attendance (17,763), the Lotte Giants (average 16,461 per game, fifth overall), and the Samsung Lions (16,477, fourth overall), who have been in the top ranks throughout the first half, are helping to attract box office.

If this pace continues, achieving 10 million spectators this year is expected to be easy. It will open the door to an era of 10 million spectators that no one has ever stepped on, skipping the 9 million era.

The rainy season, which began late, is considered a variable.

The Hanwha-KIA match scheduled to be held at Kia Champions Field in Gwangju on the 22nd was canceled due to rain. a view of the ground wet with rain. Gwangju = Reporter Jeong Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2024.6.21/

Contrary to the initial expectation that the rainy season will begin in earnest from the end of June, the rainy front did not move north until mid-July. Torrential rain was expected during the All-Star break, but as it was delayed by about two days, the first-ever rain cancellation of the All-Star Game did not occur. However, it seems inevitable to adjust the schedule for the second half of the year, which starts on the 9th. While thick rain began to wet the country from the 8th, there are predictions that it will continue to rain throughout this week. Amid a series of delays, there are concerns that the box office will be hit by the holiday season, which is the offseason of baseball.

ppark@sportschosun.com

"The Greatest Hits"...KBO to Run to the 10 Million Spectators Will Be a Variant in Jang-Ma-Bi

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