Cumulative home attendance of 281,473…first 300,000 since inception
Ulsan Hyundai players celebrating a goal.
Professional soccer team Ulsan Hyundai will hunt for its first ‘back-to-back K League 1 titles’ and ‘300,000 home attendance’ this weekend.
“Our club, which reached the top of the K League 1 for the first time in 17 years last season, is challenging
to win the title for the second consecutive year for the first time since its founding,” the club said on
Sept. 26. “Based on this, good results are continuing in marketing.”
Ulsan will host Daegu FC in the 35th round of the Hana OneQ K League 2023 at Ulsan Munsoo Stadium on May 29 at 2 p.m. KST.
This season’s K League 1 leaders Ulsan (67 points) have an eight-point lead over second-place Pohang Steelers (59 points).
If Pohang draws or loses away to Jeonbuk Hyundai at Jeonju World Cup Stadium at 2 p.m. on Aug. 28,
Ulsan will clinch the “early title” this season by beating Daegu on Aug. 29.
Ulsan is on track for its first back-to-back K League 1 titles since its inception after winning its third K League title in 17 years last season.
A packed house at Ulsan Munsoo Stadium
Beyond the team’s performance, 2023 is also a big year for Ulsan’s marketing.
First, Ulsan is on track to reach the 300,000 home attendance mark for a single season.
This season, Ulsan played 16 games at home and drew 281,473 fans, second only to FC Seoul (17 home games – 382,384).
Accordingly, if Ulsan draws 18,527 fans for this weekend’s home game against Daegu, the club will
surpass the 300,000 mark for single-season home games for the first time since its inception.
Ulsan will only be the second team to reach 300,000 home fans in a season after FC Seoul (2019-2023)
since 2018, when the paid attendance policy was introduced in the K League 1 stage. It will be the third time in history that the club has reached the 300,000 mark.
Ulsan also averaged 17,592 fans at home this season, and with three home games remaining this season, the club will attempt to surpass the 20,000 average home attendance mark for the first time since its inception.
This is a significant figure for a non-metropolitan club that struggles to draw crowds.
Ulsan has also seen a welcome increase in marketing income this year as home crowds have grown.
The team’s self-operated food and beverage (F&B) business, which started this year, generated 1.35 billion won, surpassing expectations of 1 billion won, and jersey sales were nearly three times as high as last year, with 15,000 jerseys sold.
An Ulsan official explained, “The rapid increase in home attendance has led to the quantitative and qualitative growth of the club’s marketing business.” “The increase in attendance is helping to create a new revenue structure for the club beyond direct admission revenue,” he said. 스포츠토토맨