The first image is of Anyang stadium, last Friday, where I saw one of the most remarkable goals I will ever see live at a game. A player lobbed the ball over the out of position keeper, all the way from inside his own half. The stadium can hold just over 17,000 and because of it’s size it means that Anyang has the highest percentage average attendance in it’s league (Almost everyone was sitting on the stand where I took the photo from). Stadiums of 20,000 or lower make sense in Korea.
The second image is if Icheon City Stadium, located in the middle of nowhere with only an amateur team in residence. The most they are likely to get to enter their 25,000 seater stadium is 200 comatose fans. This for a city with only 200,000 people. And they are not alone. Gangneung, a city on the East coast, has about the same population and a stadium for 35,000 people. Hwaseong Stadium is a hyper modern 35,000 seater with only an amature team to keep it company.
Currently only 4 teams in the whole country has an average of more than 10,000 people per game, and only one goes over 20,000, so you have to wonder what they were thinking when they built on these ghost stadiums. (Sometimes they get to hold internationals, but that is once in a blue moon. )
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