The K-League 1 ‘audience cheer’ that started last February does not stop even after summer. K-League 1 is challenging the ‘2 million spectators era’ for the first time in history.
The Korea Professional Football League recorded 1,837,901 paid spectators in 176 games. “This is the record for the largest number of spectators in a single season in K League 1 after counting paid spectators in 2018,” it was announced on the 16th. The previous record was 1,827,061 in the 2019 season, which was based on 228 games. The record has already been broken in 30 of the 38 rounds of K League 1. 소닉카지노 The average audience per game is 10,443.
Starting with 28,039 people gathered for the official opening game of K League 1 between Ulsan Hyundai and Jeonbuk Hyundai in February, 100,000 people gathered in the opening round alone, including FC Seoul-Incheon (22,204 people) and Suwon-Gwangju (10,348 people). More than 100 spectators visited the stadium. The effect of advancing to the round of 16 of the 2022 FIFA Qatar World Cup and the influence of Cho Kyu-sung (then Jeonbuk), who rose to stardom, were reflected.
Two months later, in the match between Seoul and Daegu FC, 45,007 spectators filled the Seoul World Cup Stadium with the ‘Lim Young-woong effect’. Subsequently, the Korean national team attracted the attention of fans by advancing to the semifinals at the 2023 FIFA Argentina U-20 World Cup, which ended in June. At that time, there was no shortage of good issues, such as key players making their K-League debuts one after another or even trying to advance overseas.
Even in the hot weather, the average number of spectators is maintained at 10,000. According to the average K-League 1 summer attendance trend released by the federation last month, the number of spectators can be seen falling in July and August. In particular, except for 2014, when the World Cup was a special event, it showed a decline of more than 10% every season. However, this season, it was -5.7% as of early August. The average number of spectators for 114 games was 10,329, but even after summer, the average number of spectators actually increased.
It is also good news that the K League 1 landscape is still chaotic. 1st place Ulsan (19 wins, 5 draws, 6 losses, 62 points), known as the ‘strongest’, has been in a slump with 1 win, 2 draws, 2 losses in the last 5 games, and the gap with 2nd place Pohang Steelers (15 wins, 11 draws, 4 losses, 56 points) is 6 points. narrowed down to Below that, the protagonist of Final A is still undecided. At least six clubs are continuing to compete on thin ice. In addition, with international competitions such as the Hangzhou Asian Games (AG), Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and Champions League (ACL) overlapping, it has become more difficult to know the direction of the game. The lower ranks (10th to 12th), who are likely to make Final B, are also exchanging last place name tags in each round. Every corner is evaluated as a place to win and is attracting the attention of fans.