"I’m here waiting since 5 a.m."
Professional baseball has finally kicked off. The 2025 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) League opened on the 22nd with five opening games in Jamsil (Lotte-LG), Suwon (KT-Hanwha), Munhak (Doosan-SSG), Daegu (Kiwoom-Samsung), and Gwangju (NC-Kia).
The ticket war to secure seats for the opening game was intense. After the ticket sales for the four teams—LG Twins, Kia Tigers, Samsung Lions, and SSG Landers—started at 11 a.m. on the 15th, the website crashed. At that time, the number of simultaneous users on Ticketlink reached approximately 200,000, which was more than double last year's figure of about 90,000.
Baseball fans who failed to secure tickets online had to compete fiercely again for on-site sales on the 22nd. At 10:30 a.m. on the 22nd, fans sat in line in front of the central ticket booth at Jamsil Stadium waiting to buy tickets for on-site sales. (On-site sales started at noon.)
An LG official noted, "There are reports that lines started forming as early as 1 a.m." In front of the central ticket booth, fans were quietly seated in four rows. A mother and daughter dressed in Lotte uniforms were in the fourth position in line (around 15th overall in line). When asked what time they arrived, they said, "I’m here waiting since 5 a.m."
An LG official explained, "The on-site sales will be roughly 500 tickets, including obstructed-view seats and online ticket cancellations." It is said that obstructed-view seats are only sold through on-site sales as they provide direct explanations to ticket buyers.
The on-site sales started at noon, and in just 16 minutes, all tickets were sold out. LG announced, "Today's game is sold out. The total attendance was 23,750, and the sellout time was at 12:16 p.m."
All five opening games were sold out. Stadiums including Jamsil, Gwangju-Kia Champions Field (25,000), Incheon SSG Landers Field (23,000), Daegu Samsung Lions Park (24,000), and Suwon KT Wiz Park (18,700) were filled with fans. The total attendance for the opening games was recorded at 109,950, marking the second-highest total ever, following the 114,021 total from the 2019 season's opening game. The KBO League has now achieved sold-out games at all stadiums for three consecutive opening days since the 2023 season.
On the 23rd, all five stadiums also achieved full attendance. This marked the first time in history that all games in the opening series were sold out. The complete sellout of all games in the opening two-game series is a first in KBO League history.
The total attendance for the two-game opening series was 219,900, setting the record for the highest attendance in opening series history. The previous record was set on March 23-24, 2019, with 214,234 attendees.
The KBO League surpassed 10,887,705 spectators last year, becoming the first in domestic professional sports to cross the dream 10 million mark. This year, it has again succeeded in achieving record attendance from the opening series, aiming for 10 million spectators for the second consecutive year.
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