Champions League attendance is embarrassingly low

[u/liuqiu_rangers]

Not even 6k at Sangam and a whopping 1k were away fans. So not even 5k Seoul fans showed up. Not even 5k at Jeonju for what was Jeonbuk's first continental top flight game in over two years, and I saw quite a few away fans. Only Daejeon had a semi decent attendance and that was because it was their first Asian games in 23 years but they still couldn't hit 10k.

Compare this to Beijing, which sent almost 30k for a weekday game. Kitchee is a HK club and they filled half their tiny stadium (which looked nearly full on TV) to play Gangwon's third team.

Other league fans get EXCITED to play on the continental stage while K League fans are barely aware of its existence and teams play their youth or reserves. Even though K League clubs are 12 times winner of the CL. Clubs and fans are showing no respect for their legacy. Embarrassing innit

[u/kangs]

I’m not at all surprised that these cup games have a small turnout. It’s hard enough getting people to care about the K League season, let alone week day games against random teams from Asia and Oceania (no disrespect meant to those teams).

I’ve tried getting my Premier League-loving Korean friends to come to a few FC Seoul games this season but they just don’t care, not even while Seoul are doing well. They watch their prem teams religiously though.

[u/jinnyjuice]

Football is just not part of Korean culture or history, a niche except for World Cup or winning something, and not considered a career path (though that goes for sports in general).

The Netherlands has a population of only 17 million. 5th biggest city here is Eindhoven, with a population fo 235k to 1,9M depending on how you want to count it. Yet, Eindhoven as a city has more football competing teams than entire Korea as country of 50 million.

[u/TschaBum → u/jinnyjuice]

Yeah, but the fact that there many other Asian countries less accomplished than Korea at football but with more enthusiasm for the local game is what's disappointing. And look how popular the KBO League has gotten recently. It makes the K League feel like wasted potential.

[u/rustic996 → u/TschaBum]

It's just hard for people in korea to take football seriously especially when Baseball is the more popular sport. Alot of people outside of korea think football is Korea's most popular sport because of Son but that's not the case unfortunately. The kbo has a better product and it just seems that the culture around Baseball in korea has something that football in the country lacks.

[u/Neat-Games]

It's not advertised well either, I always miss games cuz I had no idea they are happening.

[u/red739423]

Teams playing reserves and youth players shows how much the teams don't care. At this point most teams don't have a chance of winning the title so why are they even resting starters for domestic league?

[u/bucket_ov_truth]

It beginning at the end of the k league season also saps enthusiasm. A new season is all about promise and thus it’d be better for the k league to be on a fall to spring calendar. Not sure it would give a massive boost to ACL attendance but it wouldn’t hurt.

[u/edgar023]

Is there a reason there is such high expectations of your national team while very little interest in the domestic league? Seems pretty backwards to me.

[u/liuqiu_rangers → u/edgar023]

That's something I find very frustrating. You can't expect the very top of the pyramid to do well when there's no support at the bottom.

[u/hkperson99]

Hong Konger here -- not a Kitchee fan, didn't go to the game because I was in Nagoya for the Asian Games. The turnout for the Gangwon game was pretty much expected -- Kitchee have perhaps the biggest fanbase in Hong Kong but the game is on a Thursday night and there's work tomorrow, and they charge more as it's a ACL night so nearly 3k seems about it.

I think there's some parallels between HK and Korea and how we both have

1. Shit FAs
2. A big difference in local league support and national team support.

We sell out stadiums for big NT games but struggle to fit even 1500, hell, even 1000 for our local league games. Granted, our league quality is way lower than even K2, but for the amount of people interested in football in Hong Kong (which was around half the population last polled), it's shocking numbers.

Also, I think the structure of the ACLE and the ACL2 has really turned off a lot of teams' attitudes towards the games themselves. I honestly think we would be better off splitting east and west completely, but that's just my take. Most teams are fielding B teams for the tournament (e.g. my J League team Kyoto Sanga basically fielded their B team as we are struggling in the league at the moment).

HK league fans get excited to play on the continental stage, and most our teams send out our A-team to play, the gulf in quality is just too big though. I had massive fun last season as a Tai Po supporter verbally abusing Beijing FC and them doing the same back and forth at our tiny stadium. It's just that as a neutral I wouldn't pay the extra for the weeknight to watch a team I'm not interested in, even though it's the last year we'll get to play against top opposition (we're dropping down next year to ACL Challenge ffs)

[u/carloskrosscaption]

From looking at attendance figures across all matches, it seems like it's a broader problem than just Korean clubs. While it's strange that J League opposition wouldn't entice fans to attend, FC Seoul's match against a club from Indonesia isn't going to bring in the casual fan. Not to mention they're playing in Champions League Two, which doesn't have many marquee teams people would be aware of.

It's been a problem for years, and I don't know how the AFC can address it without making drastic changes to the format of both Champions Leagues.

[u/Abject_Historian7975 → u/carloskrosscaption]

To be honest, even Guoan's attendance, which looks impressive comparatively, was the lowest this season by around 10,000 fans, in part because ACL tickets aren't included in the season ticket package (pre-COVID they always were) & also because of the late kickoff times (they are almost all 20:15 locally), making it hard for families with school age kids to attend.

[u/northern_hero]

Personally I can’t come because games start a bit too early for me. Games start at 7 and I clock out at that time if not later

[u/brayfurrywalls]

People just don't care for ACL here.

[u/temporarellie]

Midweek game + lack of interest + badly advertised + not covered by season tickets

[u/LuisValenciaH1972]

hace algunos dias, debido a que juego Football Manager 26, dirijo en el juego a un equipo de corea llamado seongnam football club, para complementar mi inmersión, sigo por youtube la K1 Y K2, pero me llama la atención ver eestadios semivacios, por que será?