Sold out from the wild card battle… Will ‘Fall Baseball’ be the most sold-out event in history?
Korean professional baseball, which has passed the fall threshold, is heating up even more. The postseason wild card match between 4th and 5th place in the regular league has been sold out since the first day. The first day of the game between Doosan Bears and KT Wiz on the 2nd was sold out without a single seat remaining. The next day, the game was the same. According to the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) on the 3rd, 22,750 tickets for the first game of the KT-Doosan wild card game were sold out, and the second game was also sold out in the morning. Even though the game was suddenly concluded with KT’s victory in the first game the previous day, it was sold out early, proving once again the enthusiasm for professional baseball.
The KBO is having its hottest season since the launch of professional baseball in 1982. According to KBO, the regular season ended with a total attendance of 10,887,705. This is the record for the largest number of spectators in a season, far exceeding the previous record of 8,406,88 in 2017.
The average number of spectators per game also exceeded 15,000, which was thought to be the ‘demon hill’. The average attendance for 720 regular season games was 15,122, breaking the previous record of 13,451 in the 2012 season for the first time in 12 years. This means that the popularity of professional baseball has spread to the entire league, not just a specific club.
The popularity of professional baseball did not diminish even during the worst heat wave. Women in their 20s and 30s, who have emerged as a new consumer group for professional baseball, are the main players in the KBO’s success. The emergence of a fan base that actively enjoys cultural life and invests time and capital led to a sell-out procession.
In the 2024 season, 221 of the 720 regular league games were sold out, setting a new record that is nearly double the previous record of 113 games sold out in 2012. In addition, the performance of the KIA Tigers, which has a solid fan base, and the battle for rankings, which continued fiercely until the last minute to the point where the 5th place match was held, also acted as a box office success.
The LG Twins, whose home stadium is Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, attracted 1,397,499 spectators, the largest ever, and became a new protagonist in the history of Korean professional baseball. In addition, Samsung Lions, Doosan, KIA, Lotte Giants, and SSG Landers also exceeded 1 million spectators.
The players responded to their fans with rich records. Reyes (Lotte) recorded two hits in the final game of the season against NC Dinos on the 1st, setting a new record for most hits in the KBO League. Kim Do-young, the protagonist of the KIA regular season championship, was a ‘new record maker’. He became the first player in the league to achieve 10 home runs and 10 stolen bases in one month (April), became the youngest player to hit 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases, set a new record for the most points scored (143 points), and wrote a cycling hit, and then hit his 38th home run of the season against Samsung on the 23rd of last month. . Although he unfortunately missed the record of 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases, he finished the regular season with a batting average of 0.347, 38 home runs, 109 RBI, 40 stolen bases, and 143 points in 141 games. Choi Jeong (SSG), who hit the most home runs (495 home runs), and Son A-seop (NC), who hit the most hits (2,505), are also the main players who shined this season.
On this day, when the second wild card game was held, the area around Jamsil Stadium in Seoul was crowded from early in the morning ahead of the game starting at 2 p.m. Not only the main characters of the game that day, Doosan and KT, but also fans wearing uniforms and jumpers of other teams such as SSG and LG gathered to add to the excitement. Inside and outside of the baseball world, there are expectations that with both wild card games sold out, this could lead to the second postseason game to be sold out, following 2011.
In this year’s semi-playoffs (best of 5 games), LG, ranked 3rd in the regular season (76 wins, 2 draws, 66 losses), started first. Samsung, in second place (78 wins, 2 draws, 64 losses), which went straight to the playoffs (best of 5 games), and KIA, in first place (87 wins, 2 draws, 55 losses), waiting for the Korean Series (best of 7 games), are all popular clubs. The biggest ticket war of all time is expected to take place in the remaining fall baseball games.
In the wild card match, KT won both games, pushed out Doosan, and will play the first game of the semi-playoffs against LG on the 5th.
Reporter Jo Soo-young delinews@hankyung.com
