Attendance remained low for the first three exhibition games in Seoul before the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres play the first-ever MLB regular-season games in South Korea later this week.
At Seoul’s 18,000-seat Gocheok Sky Dome, attendance came to 14,671 for Sunday’s day game between the Dodgers and Kiwoom Heroes and 12,497 for Sunday’s night game between the Padres and South Korea’s national team.
On Monday, only 6,815 fans turned out for the Padres-LG Twins day game, in which Korean star Kim Ha Seong hit a pair of two-run homers for San Diego.
“The (exhibition) tickets weren’t sold out,” said Starnews Korea reporter Kim Woo Jong. “Korea is still not so familiar with Major League Baseball.”
Possible explanations for the low attendance include the lack of parking near the stadium and the high cost of tickets. The price of a seat worth about ¥1,000 ($6.70) for a Korean league game costs about ¥10,000 for an MLB exhibition game this time.
“I’m sure this series makes people over here feel more familiar with MLB and will lead to the next generation,” the reporter said.
The Dodgers and Padres will face each other Wednesday and Thursday. Tickets for Wednesday’s season-opening game were reportedly sold out in just eight minutes.