The top Korean baseball league surpassed the 10-million mark in attendance on Sunday, marking another milestone in its record-breaking season. Specifically, its 10 clubs have now combined for 10,020,758 fans after four games on Sunday. Before Sunday, the league’s attendance was at 9,943,6741.

Three of the games sold out on Sunday. The Kia Tigers hosted the Kiwoom Heroes before a packed house of 20,500 fans at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, about 270 kilometers south of Seoul. The SSG Landers and the Samsung Lions drew 23,000 fans at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon, just west of the capital. In Busan, the Lotte Giants and the Hanwha Eagles had 22,758 fans at Sajik Baseball Stadium. Changwon NC Park in Changwon, just west of Busan, had 10,826 fans for the game between the home team NC Dinos and the LG Twins, about 7,000 short of a sellout.

The KBO set a single-season attendance record on August 18 with 8,475,664 fans, surpassing the previous mark of 8,400,688 from 2017. Fans have continued to flock to ballparks around the country. Through Sunday, all 10 clubs were averaging at least 10,000 fans per home game, with a league-wide average of 14,934 fans per game, which would be a new record by about 1,500.

A record six teams have exceeded 1 million fans for the season, led by the defending champions Twins with 1,281,420. Teams have recorded 195 sellouts, another record figure, or about 29 percent of all games. The Eagles have sold out 43 out of their 66 home games so far at the 12,000-seat Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon, about 140 kilometers south of Seoul.
 

Sayart / Sims green sims010@naver.com