This June 16, 2024, file photo shows fans at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul for a Korea Baseball Organization regular-season game between the Lotte Giants and the LG Twins. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Jul. 3 (Korea Bizwire) — The South Korean baseball league is on the verge of topping 6 million fans for the season even before the end of the first half, with the single-season record in danger as well.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said its 10 teams had drawn just over 5.92 million fans in 408 games through Tuesday. With 10 games to go before the All-Star break starts Friday, teams need just about 70,600 fans to reach the 6-million mark.
The KBO has never previously drawn over 6 million fans before the break.
If the teams go over 6 million fans this week, the KBO will also set a record for the fewest games needed to surpass the mark. Teams will play a maximum 418 games before the All-Star weekend.
The previous record was 419 games from the 2012 season.
All 10 clubs are averaging over 10,000 fans per game at home, a feat that has never been accomplished before. Even in 2017, when the KBO established a record with 8.4 million fans, only half of the clubs averaged more than 10,000 fans per game.
Last year, six teams drew 10,000-plus on average at home, as the league saw 8.1 million fans — the second-highest total ever — walk through the gates. The leaguewide average was 11,250 fans per game.
So far this season, teams are averaging 14,533 fans per contest.
The Kia Tigers, owner of the best record so far at 46-33-2 (wins-losses-ties), have also enjoyed the biggest jump in attendance with 77 percent from the same point last season. They have played in front of 692,744 fans so far this season at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in the southwestern city of Gwangju, only 24,281 shy of the total from all last season.
The Hanwha Eagles are averaging 11,291 fans at their 12,000-seat Hanwha Life Eagles Park in the central city of Daejeon. They have sold out 30 of their 42 home games so far, and four other clubs have topped double figures in sellouts.
The 116 sellouts leaguewide are already a single-season record, three more than in the 2012 season.
(Yonhap)
