A 50,000 won ticket for 150,000 won? What about the pre-sale benefits? Will there be measures to eradicate ticket sales

Mar 28, 2025

A game between the LG Twins and the Hanwha Eagles at Jamsil Stadium on the 26th. Baseball fans who filled the stands are enjoying the game. Jamsil = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2025.03.26/

KBO and 10 KBO League clubs have collaborated to eradicate scalpers. Will it be possible to prevent illegal macro programs and organized movements of scalpers.

KBO and 10 clubs said on the 28th that they will be aware of the seriousness of ticket sales, which has been prevalent in conjunction with the recent explosive popularity of the KBO League, and discuss ways to improve, such as sharing countermeasures for each club. Ten clubs have already worked with ticket vendors of each club to limit the number and quantity of purchases per online reservation ID and operate a CAPTCHA system to prevent illegal macro reservations. In addition, suspected macro IDs are detected and blocked, and reports are being received through the Korea Professional Sports Association's Ticket Reporting Center.

KBO and 10 clubs plan to continue to maintain a cooperative system and try to minimize damage to fans who are suffering from online and offline ticket sales. In addition, we plan to strengthen our surveillance networks online and offline by establishing a cooperative system with related government ministries and police, including the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

As professional baseball intuition has gained tremendous popularity among young people in their teens and 30s since last year, finding baseball tickets has also become a battlefield. Until last year, it was difficult to get tickets for only a few games, such as games by some popular teams in the Seoul metropolitan area, big matches, and golden holidays, but this phenomenon has been extended to general games since last year. This year, it is difficult to book tickets not only for the opening game but also for weekday games.

The Hanwha Eagles-LG Twins match held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul from the 25th to the 27th sold out 23,750 players throughout the three days. LG set a new record of selling out the opening five consecutive home games for the first time in KBO history. The good performance of Seoul's popular team LG, which has won five consecutive games, and the showdown between another popular team Hanwha, which is based in Daejeon but has many fans in the metropolitan area, have brought tremendous popularity even though it is a weekday night game.

During the same period, more than 20,000 spectators attended the three consecutive games during the week between the NC Dinos and the Samsung Lions at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu. On the 26th, it sold out 24,000 seats.

The weekend game is almost a war. These days, fans living in other regions don't hesitate to go long distances to watch just one game, so getting tickets is a rare occurrence. In particular, Hanwha Life Ballpark, Daejeon's new stadium, will play its first regular season opening game on the 28th, which is already being traded at a premium of up to three times higher on the ticket resale site.

The KBO League SSG and Doosan played at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 23rd. the opening two games in a row. Landersfield, which has sold out for two consecutive days. Incheon = Song Jeong-heon Reporter's songs@sportschosun.com/2025.03.23/

According to the trend on the resale site, high-priced tickets of about 50,000 won to 60,000 won for popular teams and popular matches are priced between 130 and 180,000 won, and there are many articles hoping to trade outfield or fourth-floor tickets at a high price of 40,000 won to 50,000 won.

Ticket resale is already actively used in famous overseas professional sports leagues such as the U.S. Major League and the British Premier League, so opinions such as 'Isn't it not a big problem?' are dominant, but the key is to use macro programs to find 'operators' who specialize in resale alone.

The game between Hanwha and LG held at Jamsil Baseball Stadium on the 27th, and the information on the sold-out of seats before the game is shown on the electronic display board. It is a new record of selling out for the first five consecutive games in the KBO League history.

Jamsil= Reporter's book@sportschosun.com/2025.03.27/

There are also many complaints that many KBO League clubs currently offer pre-sale and cool resale benefits depending on their paid membership rating or season ticket holders, which leads to reselling at a high price at a premium.

Due to the popularity of baseball, ordinary baseball fans who actively use the pre-sale benefits and are not eligible for pre-sale are disappointed, saying, "I went on the site as soon as the reservation opened, but I couldn't find a decent seat at all, and it was practically almost over."

Clubs also have no choice in terms of marketing, but professional baseball intuition is becoming more and more of a "other person's job" for young baseball fans who have less access to tickets and lack purchasing power, or for middle-aged or older digital underprivileged people who are not familiar with ticket reservation open runs. In particular, many elderly fans can be seen stamping their feet to get tickets left on the spot even if they pay more.

Will these parts be practically solved. I'm curious about the solution of KBO and clubs.

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.