Map On

People who have walked around with me know that I rarely get completely lost. I generally have very good sense of direction and once I have the map in my head I can pretty much walk to my destination in three different ways.

I can do this because I like map. I like maps a lot. You could say that I love maps. I find them fascinating. So, when someone on the Korean Football Forum said that someone should create a map to show where all the lower league teams are, my brain said “Someone should create a map? We love maps. We shall create such a map.”

I created a Google Map and used a combination of Soccerway, Google Maps and Daum Maps to find and mark all the stadiums. I even added the stadium capacities, and had a look at this years average attendances.

This might sound boring to you, but to me making the map was 3 hours of pure joy. While making the map I noticed a few things. Noticing things on a map is what makes them so interesting.

One. When it comes to lower league football, there is a huge empty strip running through the country, starting at the top of the West coast running down and veering towards Moko when it reaches just North of Pohang.

Two. Korea has way too many stadium with capacities over 20,000. it might sound like 20,000 is small, but consider that soccer is the seconds most popular sport in Korea, and even in the top league we have only two teams getting close to an average attendance of 20,000.

What were the the plans for all these stadiums? Who was supposed to fill them, and when? I realise that the stadiums can and are used for other events, but I have been to some of these and not once have we been able to fill more than half a main stand. If they get these events one a month then it is more than I expected. Does the rent from teams and occasional event really justify the cost of construction and maintenance of these stadiums?

Three. Incheon Korail FC plays in a 50,000 capacity stadium. They managed to draw a whole average of 166 people per game this season, with a lowest attendance of 80. How do we know this? Are they actually charging people to watch? If they are, how much?

Four. In the Challenge League, League 2, 4 out of 8 stadiums have capacities of over 20,000. Sangju, with the smallest stadium, was the only teams to have an average attendance to get over the 10% capacity mark.

Five. The National League, League 3, have 4 stadiums with capacities over 20,000 and 4 stadiums falling between capacities of 15,000 to 20,000. One single club was able to get their average attendance to 25% of capacity, and that is only because they have a stadium that can handle 2800 people. I didn’t miss a zero.

Six. In the Challengers League, League 4, there are 4 teams with stadiums over 20,000 with the largest being 43,000 that is not being shared by more than one team. The rest of the teams spread pretty evenly from very small to just under 20,000. I have no idea what the average attendance might be for these games, but I can’t see anyone being better than about 750.

And 750 just happens to be about the average attendance of Cheonan City FC, with grounds that can handle just 2,900 people. Their stadium expenses to attendance ration must be something that actually makes sense. 750 is also not bad if you consider that Gangwon played in the top league and managed only about 1,400 as an average attendance over the season, in a 25,000 seater stadium.

Wow. I liked this way too much. I think I need to go drink a beer and watch rugby for a while.


View Football Stadiums in Korea in a larger map