Baseball fever is in the air. The hottest league in its 40-year history has already attracted 4 million fans.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced on January 1 that the 2024 KBO League has reached 4 million spectators after 285 games.
Of the games played at five stadiums across the country, 23,750 people attended Jamsil Stadium (Doosan Bears-LG Twins), 22,758 people attended Sajik Stadium (Lotte Giants-NC Dinos), and 24,000 people attended Samsung Lions Park (Samsung Lions-Hanwha Eagles) in Daegu, Kia Champions Field in Gwangju (KIA Tigers-KT Wiz) sold out with 25,000 fans, and Gocheok Sky Dome (Kiwoom Heroes-SSG Landers) attracted 10,462 fans, for a total of 101,470 fans for a cumulative total of 4,096,149 fans.
The average attendance this season is 14,372. Depending on the size of the stadiums for the remaining games, this is on pace to bring in 1,034,840 fans.
It’s the second-fastest pace since 2012 (255 games) and the fastest since the 10-team system. The previous record was 4 million in 328 games in 2018.
That’s a lot of popularity. The fastest pace was in 2012, with a final attendance of 7.156 million. It was on track to reach 8.3 million by the time it hit the 4 million mark, but the hot streak ended in May.
So far, so good. South Korea’s baseball team was competitive at the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC), where it finished fourth and runner-up, and at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where it won all nine games.
From just 3.4 million fans in 2006, attendance grew to 4.1 million in 2007, 5.25 million in 2008, 6.81 million in 2011, 7.15 million in 2012, and finally reached 8 million in 2016. The next three years of enthusiasm were followed by a slight decline to 7.28 million in 2019.
After three seasons of limited attendance in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, professional baseball has blossomed again, drawing 8.1 million fans last year when attendance was unrestricted.
This season, enthusiasm is higher than ever. Ten teams are enjoying strong attendance across the board, but Hanwha stands out among them. Of the 29 games played in Daejeon this season, all but eight have been sold out. Last year’s total attendance was 567,885, with an 토토 average of 7,764 per game, while this season’s is 11,523. This is a 48% increase in attendance from last year.
Other teams that showed high crowd mobilization were LG with 18,134, Kia with 17,582, Doosan with 16,949, Samsung with 16,421, and Lotte with 16,270.
The outlook for the future is likely to be closely tied to the standings. Currently, first-place Kia, second-place LG, third-place Samsung, and fourth-place Doosan are all showing great strength in terms 파워볼실시간 of crowd mobilization.
Hanwha, on the other hand, has seen its fan enthusiasm wane after an early surge, failing to sell out its last seven games in a row.
Lotte could also be a box office game changer. Even though they are currently in last place, many spectators have been traveling to their stadiums, and if they are on the upswing since June, they will likely draw even more.
The second day’s games start at 2 p.m. at Gocheok Sky Dome and Jamsil Stadium, and 5 p.m. at Sajik Stadium, Gwangju Kia Champions Field, and Daegu Samsung Lions Park. With the sunny weather and convenient game times compared to weekdays, it is expected that all stadiums will be sold out.