A strong box office success broke through the heat wave… Professional baseball’s ‘10 million spectator era’ opened (photo issue)
The article written in ‘Jungnim-dong Photo Studio’ is a compilation of articles that were reflected in the pages of the Korea Economic Daily.
Nice to meet you, baseball… All stadiums sold out for the opening game for two years in a row
The opening game of the 2024 professional baseball regular season was held at five stadiums across the country on March 23. A total of 103,851 baseball fans visited the stadium, setting a record of selling out the stadium before the opening game for two consecutive years.
I came to vote… Exceeded 1 million spectators in 70 games
On April 10th, the day of the 22nd National Assembly election, when the Hanwha Eagles and Doosan Bears faced each other, 23,750 tickets were sold out at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. Professional baseball achieved ‘1 million spectators’ for the second fastest time in history.
A new record for the largest number of spectators that could not be prevented by the Olympics and heat waves.
Despite the variables of the 2024 Paris Olympics and the heat wave, the popularity of the Korean professional baseball league did not subside. The KBO League, which continued its box office success, set a new record for the largest audience ever. The KBO League, with 91,527 people attending five stadiums on August 18, achieved a cumulative attendance of 8,475,664 this year after 573 games. The previous record for largest attendance set in 2017 was surpassed by a whopping 147 games.
Women in their 20s and 30s who are rocking the sports scene
The main characters driving the unprecedented box office success are ‘women in their 20s and 30s’. According to KBO, the proportion of women among professional baseball ticket buyers in the first half of this year reached 54.4%. It increased by 3.7% points compared to last year. The proportion of female spectators in their 20s jumped from 37.8% last year to 41.4% this year. The explanation is that if you include people in their 30s, it is well over half.
Experts attribute this trend to Korea’s stadiums and surrounding environment. Women can safely return home by public transportation even after the game ends late in the evening, and many stadiums have family-friendly facilities such as children’s playrooms (Gocheok Sky Dome, Seoul) and impromptu barbecue zones (SSG Landers Field, Incheon).
Sports fan culture, which resembles the fandom of idol singers, also plays a role. NYT analyzed that “Korean female sports fans follow their favorite players to games held across the country,” and “the fandom culture of worshiping K-pop idols is widely used in sports as well.”
A new record of 10 million spectators for professional baseball… Advertising effect for 10 clubs in KRW unit
Korean professional baseball recorded a cumulative attendance of 10,027,58 on the 15th, opening the era of 10 million spectators in a single season for the first time in 42 years since its inception.
There is an analysis that traditional brands such as Kia and Samsung have been revived for the first time in a long time, and competition for the mid-tier is fierce, resulting in a huge hit. As professional baseball enjoys the highest popularity ever, the advertising effect enjoyed by the 10 companies that operate professional baseball teams, including Kia, Samsung, LG, Doosan, KT, Shinsegae, Hanwha, NCSoft, and Kiwoom Securities, is expected to exceed 1 trillion won, the industry predicts. estimated.
Reporter Choi Hyuk
