“Lotte, Lotte, Lotte, Lotte of Victory.”
The Sajik Stadium in Busan, where the Lotte Giants and NC Dinos played a three-game midweek series on the 23rd and 25th, was packed even on a weekday evening. The home team’s cheers, sung by a large number of spectators, rang out louder than ever.
On the 23rd, 13,803 tickets were sold about an hour before kickoff, and 15,047 people finally attended. It was the largest crowd for a Tuesday game this season.메이저사이트
Typically, Tuesday games in baseball struggle at the box office. When it comes to midweek three-game series, Thursday games tend to be more popular than Tuesday-Wednesday games. Out of the 32 games played on Tuesdays this year, only six exceeded 10,000 spectators. Lotte has attracted more than 15,000 fans.
The fervour of the ‘resignation karaoke’ has not cooled down. 14,244 fans attended the 24th game and 15,221 fans attended the 25th game.
Although the series was a Nakdong River derby against local rival NC, the two teams’ matchup was not a surefire box office draw. The last time NC and Sajik played a three-game series, on 5-7 August 2022, attendance was 21,087.
The reason why Sajik Stadium is enjoying a box office breeze this year is because Lotte is performing well. At the beginning of the season, Lotte went on a nine-game winning streak and took sole possession of first place, erasing the image of “Bomde” (a team that does well only in spring) and transforming into “Topde” (a team that leads). In May, their performance stalled, but this year they are a different story at 10-7. They are in a three-way tie for second place with the LG Twins and SSG Landers.
The number of sellouts has also increased. Lotte’s first sellout came on 30 April against the Kiwoom Heroes, their first solo top spot of the season, and then again on 20-21 April when they faced SSG for the top spot, with all 22,990 tickets sold.
Looking at the monthly attendance records, Lotte’s attendance growth is even more noticeable. In the 13 games in April, 132,634 fans were counted, an average of just over 10,000. In the nine May games leading up to the NC on the 25th, the average attendance was 145,931, an increase of almost 6,000. In terms of average home attendance in May, Lotte is the top team among the 10 clubs.
Due to the exciting box office, Lotte’s average attendance for the season increased to 12,662. This is a 44.3 per cent increase from last year’s average attendance of 8,773.
A Lotte team official said, “As Lotte has been performing well, winning nine games in a row and taking sole possession of first place at one point, more and more passionate Lotte fans are visiting the ballpark. In particular, the number of spectators watching in groups has increased significantly.”