Seoul: The South Korean baseball league announced Wednesday it set a new attendance record in the preseason this month, the latest sign of the sport's massive popularity.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) reported that 42 preseason games, played from March 8 to Tuesday, attracted 321,763 fans, averaging 7,661 fans per game. This surpasses the previous record of 7,470 fans per game set in 2012. On March 9, the league's 10 teams drew a single-day preseason record of 71,288 fans.
Preseason games held on weekdays were free, with only small fees charged for weekend games. The KBO had its most successful regular season in 2024, drawing over 10.88 million fans, though the preseason that year saw less than 5,000 fans per game on average.
The league introduced a pitch clock for the first time this preseason, aiming to speed up the games. However, the average game duration increased to two hours and 45 minutes, six minutes longer than in 2024. The KBO noted 13 pitch clock violations by pitchers and four by hitters. Pitchers have 20 seconds to start their delivery with the bases empty and 25 seconds with runners on base, while hitters must be in the box and alert to the pitcher by the eight-second mark. Additionally, batters have 33 seconds to step into the box, with nine violations recorded during the preseason.