Popular despite a series of crises including player departures
The secret is cheering culture and reasonable admission fees
Leisure choice due to recession and rising prices
It was led by the MZ generation with thin wallets.
The 2024 professional baseball season is gaining popularity as it opens the era of 10 million spectators. The previous record for the largest number of spectators was 8.4 million in 2017, so this year’s baseball craze is truly amazing. More than 200 games have sold out, which is close to 30% of the total.
In fact, Korean baseball has been in crisis recently due to poor performances in international competitions and illegal behaviors by some players. However, this season’s popularity has made such predictions pale in comparison. Baseball experts point out the good performances of popular teams such as KIA and Samsung, Ryu Hyun-jin joining his former team Hanwha, the emergence of young stars such as Kim Do-young, and the elimination of controversies over judgments due to the introduction of the Automatic Ball Judgment System (ABS) as factors in the popularity of professional baseball.
Song Yong-jun, Minister of Culture and Sports
What’s interesting is that the MZ generation (born in the early 1980s to early 2000s) and women are driving the popularity of baseball. So why do young people and women go to baseball stadiums? The answer can be found in the results of an online survey (multiple responses) conducted by the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) in August of last year on 2,600 fans. Only 10% of respondents said that they did so because of the introduction of new game systems such as ABS and because they like specific players, but 49.3% said that they enjoy the cheering culture, 31.1% said that they do so for outings and dates, and 29.4% said that they like the food and drink culture such as chicken and beer. This means that there are a lot of fans who are attracted to culture outside of the game, rather than the performance of the team they support or the international competitiveness of baseball.
The unique cheering culture of Korean baseball is a hot topic even in the United States, the birthplace of baseball. The New York Times (NYT) reported last month that the so-called “Pikki Pikki Dance” performed by cheerleaders when a KIA pitcher strikes out an opposing batter is “taking over social networking service (SNS) algorithms and attracting the interest of millions of viewers,” and that “actually famous influencers and overseas fans are posting videos of themselves dancing to this dance on SNS.”
However, there is an eye-catching part in the KBO survey. 26.2% of people said that the reason they visit professional baseball stadiums is because ‘the cost of watching baseball is more reasonable than other entertainment.’ In fact, as of 2023, the average price per person (sales per seat) for professional baseball was only 15,718 won. Tickets for musicals and concerts, which can be considered competitors, are well over 150,000 won, and admission fees for amusement parks are 40,000-50,000 won. In comparison, the average price of a baseball stadium ticket is cheaper than an IMAX theater. It is good news for young people that there is a place where they can have fun for about 3 hours for less than 20,000 won.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, a new word, ‘Funflation’, has emerged, combining the words ‘fun’ and ‘inflation’. It refers to the phenomenon in which people increase their spending on fun performances, travel, etc. due to pent-up demand and increased savings after the pandemic ended. However, as can be seen from the combination of the word ‘inflation’, there is the problem of a steep rise in the price of consumption for fun. In particular, considering the recent poor domestic economic situation, the increase in leisure expenses cannot help but be a huge burden.
Behind the popularity of Korean professional baseball, isn’t it the shadow of reality that the recession and rising prices of leisure goods are causing the burden of expenses? Especially for the younger generation who have thin wallets but are full of energy and want to enjoy more, the cost issue is a very important factor in their choice. In this respect, Korean professional sports with cheap tickets are very competitive. This is evident not only in professional baseball but also in other sports, such as professional soccer, where the number of spectators increased by 30% compared to the previous year. There is also an analysis that interest in sports increases during economic recessions, just as interest in sports stars such as Se-ri Pak and Chan-ho Park increased during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) economic crisis.
In the end, the 10 million spectators for professional baseball can be seen as a response to the rational consumption behavior of the younger generation who are not well off in the recession era, with our unique cheering culture. It also seems to be in line with the phenomenon in which the MZ generation, who once flocked to golf, shifted to tennis due to the burden of cost, and recently turned to running.
Song Yong-jun, Minister of Culture and Sports
[ⓒ 세계일보 & Segye.com, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]
2024-09-24 14:31:43