Surpassing 10 million spectators in 671 games
The 2024 professional baseball season, in its 43rd year, has opened the era of 10 million spectators.
Even though the heat continued into September, 77,084 spectators attended the four stadiums where KBO League games were held on the 15th.
On this day, Gwangju-Kia Champions Field (25,000 spectators), Incheon SSG Landers Field (23,000 spectators), and Sajik Stadium (22,758 spectators) were sold out. Changwon NC Park was filled with 10,826 spectators.
Professional baseball, which had 9,943,674 spectators as of the 14th, leaving 56,326 spectators left until reaching 10 million, has now surpassed 10 million spectators with 10,027,580 spectators attending 671 games.
Professional baseball, which was launched in 1982, reached the dream of 10 million spectators in its 43rd year.
Baseball fever has been intense this year. There are six teams that have surpassed 1 million cumulative spectators for their home games.
LG Twins recorded 1,281,420 cumulative home game spectators, ranking first among the 10 teams. Samsung Lions came in second with 1,275,022 spectators, and Doosan Bears came in third with 1,198,211 spectators.
KIA Tigers attracted 1,177,249 spectators, Lotte Giants attracted 1,111,813 spectators, and SSG Landers attracted 1,063,014 spectators.
Also, although the season is not over yet, Kiwoom Heroes (781,318), Hanwha Eagles (745,797), KT Wiz (718,243), and NC Dinos (676,061) also surpassed last year’s final attendance figures.
All 10 clubs had an average attendance of over 10,000 spectators.
LG maintains first place with an average audience of 18,844.
Following this, Samsung recorded an average audience of over 17,000 with 18,215, Doosan 18,043, Lotte 17,105, and KIA 17,062.
SSG recorded an average of 15,000 spectators with 15,866, followed by KT with 11,401, Hanwha with 11,300, Kiwoom with 11,004, and NC with 12,43.
The average number of spectators this year was 14,934, a significant increase from last year’s 11,126.
The total number of sold-out games reached 195, with 29.1% of the games being sold out.
Hanwha sold out 43 of its 66 home games, followed by Samsung 27 times, KIA 26 times, Doosan 24 times, and LG 22 times.
In 1982, the first year of its launch, the total number of spectators was 1,438,768.
The following year, in 1983, professional baseball surpassed 2 million spectators with 2,256,121 spectators, and in 1990 (3,189,488 spectators), it surpassed 3 million spectators for the first time.
In 1993, it welcomed the 4 million spectators era by gathering 4,437,149 spectators, and in 1995 (5,406,374 spectators), it reached 5 million spectators.
Professional baseball, whose total number of spectators fell to 2,639,119 in 1998, faced a crisis in the early 2000s when the number of spectators remained at 2 million.
However, in 2008 (5,256,332 spectators), when the Korean baseball team won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, the attendance figure recovered to 5 million.
In 2011 (6,812,028 people), it surpassed 6 million spectators, and in the following year, 2012 (7,156,157 people), it enjoyed a revival period, surpassing 7 million spectators.
After that, the number of spectators dropped to 6 million, but in 2015 (7,365,300) when the 10-team system was introduced, professional baseball brought in 7 million spectators again, and in 2016 (8,339,577) it reached the 8 million spectators era for the first time.
In 2017, a new record-breaking attendance was set with 8,406,888 spectators attending.
Since then, professional baseball attendance has been on the decline, and in 2020 and 2021, spectators were not admitted as usual due to COVID-19.
But this year, enthusiasm for professional baseball has reached its peak.
It showed signs of success from the start.
The opening five games were sold out with 103,841 spectators, signaling the start of a box office hit, and on June 23, 142,660 spectators attended eight games including a doubleheader, setting a KBO League record for the largest daily attendance.
Professional baseball surpassed 1 million spectators in 70 games on April 9, 18 days after its opening, and again attracted 2 million spectators in 148 games on April 27, 18 days later. It was the second fastest since 2012 (8-team system) when it surpassed 2 million spectators in 126 games.
On May 16, the spectators surpassed 3 million in just 217 games, the second fastest pace after 2012 (190 games).
On June 1, professional baseball attracted 4 million spectators in just 285 games, the second fastest in history, and two weeks later, on June 14, it surpassed 5 million spectators in just 345 games.
Continuing its box office success, professional baseball surpassed 6 million spectators in just 418 games on July 4, the lowest number ever. It was the first time in history that 6 million spectators were surpassed in the first half of a season.
On July 27, professional baseball surpassed 7 million spectators in just 487 games, the lowest number ever, and by August 18, it had recorded a cumulative spectator count of 8,407,887, breaking the previous record set in the 2017 season.
Professional baseball, which surpassed 9 million spectators on August 28, celebrated reaching 10 million spectators during the Chuseok holiday.
[서울=뉴시스]
2024-09-15 20:06:31