The average attendance of the last-place team for the third consecutive year is 32,804'Performance = Heung-haeng' The low-ranking team that broke the official record, is about to surpass 2.3 million in 16 years

Oct 01, 2024

Muramatsu, who hit the final shot in the fifth inning against Hiroshima on September 22, led the team to a 2-1 victory. Chunichi won four consecutive games after Tatsunami announced his resignation after the end of the season. Photo capture = Chunichi Dragons SNS

Takahashi, a high school graduate who has emerged as a Chunichi ace, is in his fourth year of high school. He has 12 wins in 21 games and a 1.38 ERA. He is the No. 1 ERA in the Central League. Photo capture = Chunichi Dragons SNS

Performance and box office success are not necessarily proportional, but usually, if you increase your performance, you will also see box office success. It is common sense in professional sports. No matter how strong the support of enthusiastic fans is, if they don't get good results, they are less scalable. However, there are often exceptional cases.

This season, the Hanwha Eagles sold out 47 games. Of the 71 games held at home, 66%, or two-thirds. Even if Daejeon Baseball Stadium is a mini-sized stadium with 12,000 seats, it is a surprising number.

Coach Kim Kyung-moon took office and once rose to sixth place. Fall baseball, looking at the fifth place, was incredibly high. However, it did not continue the good trend until the end. It was one game behind the Lotte Giants. Finished the season in eighth place.

It's not like the home winning rate is high. 30 wins, two draws and 39 losses, 435. He ranked last in home winning percentage among the 10 KBO League teams. Nevertheless, the crowd of almost every game shouted "Choi, Kang, Han, Hwa" and "Eagles made me happy."called " After hovering at the bottom for a long time, expectations for grades have decreased. Regardless of winning or losing, fans seem to have reached the point where they enjoy the atmosphere.

The Junichi Dragons of the Japanese professional baseball league is similar this season. As of the 1st, Chunichi has 59 wins, 8 draws and 73 losses and a winning rate of 447. It is sixth out of six teams in the Central League. He is on the verge of losing for the third consecutive year. Chunichi played fall baseball only once in 12 seasons from 2013 to this year. Went to the Climax Series in third place in 2020.

Chunichi, where Sun Dong-yeol and Lee Jong-beom played an active part, was not in the bottom of the list. From 2002 to 2012, he maintained the A-class (4th to 6th place out of 6 teams) for 11 consecutive seasons. In 2010-2011, he won the league for two consecutive years and finished second in 2012. After that, it went downhill and faced a dark age.

However, this season, the bottom-scoring performance and the box office play separately.

Hiroshima Carp match held at Nagoya Bantherin Dome (Nagoya Dome) on the 22nd. Chunichi's highest number of spectators in a single game this season was 36,310. On the 23rd, the next day, 36,320 people flocked to the match against Hiroshima to break the record.

A total of 2,236,698 people entered 68 home games this season. The average is 32,804 per game. The crowd is flocking to the team that is doing its best to get out of last place.

Chunichi's squad greets the stands after the last away game at the Tokyo Dome this season. Director Tatsunami also said goodbye to his fans. Photo capture = Chunichi Dragons SNS

It ranks third in average attendance in the Central League after the Hanshin Tigers and the Yomiuri Giants. Hanshin recorded 41,801 (total of 39,969) per game, and Yomiuri recorded 39,205 (total of 2,783,523) per game. Yomiuri won the league for the first time in four years, and Hanshin, the winner of last year's Japan Series, virtually confirmed second place.

It ranks fourth among 12 teams in both leagues. The Pacific League's Softbank Hawks led Chunichi with 37,894 (a total of 2,614,689).

Until the 1st, the Central League attracted a total of 14,308,588 - an average of 34,068, and the Pacific League attracted a total of 11,787,239 - an average of 28,132.

At this rate, it will record 2.3 million spectators for the first time in 16 years since 2008 when coach Hiromitsu Ochiai led the team. This is true even though the number of seats at the Banterin Dome was 2,000 less than when Ochiai was coach. Japanese media reported that the proportion of young spectators in their 20s was the highest, citing team data.

The club's analysis is that the event held at the stadium is popular with young fans and that Shohei Ohtani (LA Dodgers), who is performing like a cartoon in the Major League, has further raised interest in baseball.

Chunichi has a good flow after manager Kazuyoshi Tatsunami (55) said he would resign when the season ends shortly after losing to Hanshin on the 18th of last month. 야쿠르트와 히

Coach Tatsunami, who took the helm in 2022, tried to make a leap forward again by renewing the team's atmosphere, but failed. Chunichi, who finished last for the second consecutive year, was in danger of finishing last for the third consecutive year. Photo capture = Chunichi Dragons SNS

It won four consecutive games against Roshima. He strengthened his will to come out last by winning five games (one loss) in six games.

Chunichi will call the Yokohama BayStars to Nagoya from the 4th and play the last three consecutive games. After these three games, Tatsunami will leave the team.

huelva@sportschosun.com