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Post-Cup fans making Korean soccer
profitable
SEOUL - Professional
soccer is being transformed into a money-making business
in South Korea as it rides the enthusiasm generated by
the country's extraordinary showing in this year's
Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)
World Cup.
South Korea's 10 soccer clubs, their
corporate sponsors and the advertising community have
been pleasantly surprised to see record-breaking numbers
of people flock to stadiums to see matches.
On
July 7, when the South Korean league's opening matches
were played, 123,189 people came to see players perform
in the flesh, thereby breaking the K-league's
opening-day record. Attendance for July 10 was 108,504,
another all-time record for mid-week turnout in the
19-year-old league's history. Industry insiders are
predicting that at this rate, the season's total could
reach the 3 million mark, a figure that was reached once
in 1999.
This translates into about
26,000-27,000 people coming to each game for the
duration of the 2002 league. The average number of
spectators posted for 2001 was 11,847 per match.
They are, moreover, buoyed by the fact that the
fan base has grown from the young to middle-aged people,
and that the popularity of such "mega-stars" as Song
Chong-gug of the Pusan Icons, Chunnam Dragon's Kim
Nam-il and Pohang Steelers veteran Hong Myung-bo, who
was captain of the 2002 World Cup squad, fuels interest
in the sport.
Others who have been members of
Guus Hiddink's team that made it to the World Cup
semi-finals have proved to be "fan magnets" drawing
thousands of admirers to see the games. Goalkeeper Lee
Woon-jae (Suwon Samsung), Lee Chun-soo (Ulsan Hyundai),
Choi Jin-chul (Chonbuk Hyundai), Lee Young-pyo (Anyang
LG), and teammate Choi Tae-uk are becoming valuable
commodities for teams as they move to generate profit.
Ahn Jung-hwan, who is seeking a new team to run
for in Europe after his split from AC Perugia, and local
talents such as Lee Dong-gook of Pohang and Ko Jong-su
of Suwon, have also contributed to the popularity of the
sport by creating legions of screaming female devotees.
Sports marketers, in particular, said the latest
trend may be the beginning of a process that will push
the professional Korean clubs out of the chronic
deficits they have been trying to shake off since 1983.
They said that if the interest shown by people
continues, clubs may actually be able to make more money
than they spend. At present experts estimate that the 10
clubs, depending on their size and the number of stars
they possess, spend between 3.5 billion and 10 billion
won (US$2.9 million to $8.4 million) per annum.
Broken down in terms of specifics areas where
profit is generated, clubs earn a living by match ticket
sales, "image rights" - money paid by companies for
players in advertisements - and the trading of players
to other clubs.
A percentage of proceeds
received by Sports TOTO, an affiliate of Tiger Pools and
South Korea's first sports lottery business, is also
being considered as a source of income. Clubs could reap
as much as 2 billion won through ticket sales by the end
of K-league 2002.
"Theoretically if 70-80
percent of the seats are filled in for most of the games
till the season ends in November, the '2 billion won
forecast' is not an impossibility," said a soccer
analyst for the Korea Football Association (KFA).
He also said that by maximizing the growing
popularity for the sport, teams can actually earn more
money by product endorsement on team kits, selling of
memorabilia including kits and souvenirs with the team
logo on them, and by taking the club's share of money
earned by athletes who star in advertisements.
The official said that although clubs usually
earned from 500 million won to 1.5 billion won through
these methods in the past, the sum could be doubled if
they play their cards right.
Supporting this
claim, a survey by ACNielsen showed that the July 20
televised match between the Chunnam Dragons and Pohang
attracted 10.4 percent of the viewing audience - about
the same as the 9 o'clock evening news by the Munhwa
Broadcasting Corp.
The higher TV viewing rate
usually equals more advertising effect, which in turn
means clubs and players can ask for more money for
sporting a brand or taking part in commercials. In
regards to trading of key players who have done a
sterling job at the FIFA championships, teams can
receive transfer fees of more than 1.5 billion won for
star players such as Song Chong-gug.
Besides
this, about 1 billion won earned through the sale of
lottery tickets is expected to be divided among clubs so
they can better manage their teams. Overall, based on
the earning figures tallied, a team can be expected to
pull in between 5 billion and 7 billion won by the end
of the year.
Soccer pundits said the amount is
nowhere near the multimillion-dollar earnings being
posted by clubs in Italy's Serie A, the English Premier
League, Spain's Primera Division or Germany's
Bundesliga. However, it could be a valuable first step
to getting the league on to a profit-making footing,
which would be good news for the future development of
Korean soccer.
(Asia Pulse/Yonhap)
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