The Impact Of Korean Baseball

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First, minimizing the effects of international sports events help viewing rates and average spectators visiting the stadium to rise. Korea had experience of losing baseball fans when the 2002 World Cup was held in Korea and its impact was critical to baseball industry. Therefore, minimizing the outcome of major international sports events is now necessary for Korean baseball. As to WBC, it helped Korean baseball pro-league to be popular again as the event started before the season and mobilized people’s interests in baseball. As for other sports events, pro-league wasn’t hugely affected by the 2006 World Cup in Germany because 2006 WBC was successful and Korean national soccer team failed to go to round of 16. Therefore, in some way, the minimizing the effects of international sports games was successful. This year, Korean baseball is once again facing the Brazil World Cup and also, Asian Games. If they go through this year’s World Cup smoothly and Korean national baseball team wins gold medal in Asian Games, which is going to be held in Incheon, Korea, Korean baseball may still be the most popular sports.
Second, the Hyundai Unicorns problems had to be solved, which was the major reason for the decline of baseball. As Hyundai disposed of the Unicorns team, Woori Heroes reestablished the Unicorns’ identity. The new Heroes team brought more fans, because the home stadium was in Mok-dong, Seoul, making the third Seoul team. The Heroes changed the result of the pennant race and performed greatly in the semi playoff series in the postseason games. Also, the Heroes had Park Byung-Ho, the Homerun King and MVP two years in a row, which made the Heroes the team with actual hero. The birth of the Heroes was the grim legacy that was left be...

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... fans is a good sign for team marketing, because for example, in addition to some of the players in Doosan Bears, many individual songs of support are sung by women and it can provide more chance to women for cheering for the players. Jung Soo-Bin of Doosan Bears and Oh Ji-Hwan of LG Twins are the representing examples.
Finally, baseball need to catch up to the popularity of K-League, the professional soccer league of Korea. According to the graphs of Yonhap News, the number of spectators and viewing rates of soccer has numbers far lower than the baseball (Overall Number). International soccer games are loved by the people, because many people know famous soccer players and overseas soccer leagues are also well known. But in truth, K-League is unpopular. Since pro-baseball league recovered its popularity, people can say baseball is more popular than soccer in Korea.

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