Kim Yeon-koung’s ticket-selling power

With the return of the “Empress of Volleyball” Kim Yeon-koung, women’s volleyball is pulling 5,000 spectators again in four years.

Incheon Heungkuk Life Pink Spiders announced that it had sold more than 5,000 tickets for the 2022-2023 V-League Women’s division game to take place on Nov. 13 against Gimcheon Korea Expressway Hi-Pass at the Incheon Samsan World Gym. Currently, there are only few tickets left in the cheering section, so it is highly likely that the tickets will soon be sold out. The match on Nov. 13 will be the first home game for Heungkuk Life since the start of the season.

The last time spectators for a women’s volleyball game exceeded 5,000 was the Christmas of 2018 in the match between the Hwaseong IBK Altos and Gimcheon Korea Expressway Hi-Pass at the Gyeonggi Hwaseong Indoor Sports Center with 5,108 spectators. The Korea Volleyball Federation (KOVO) has been restricting the number of spectators allowed in the stadium because of the COVID-19 pandemic and has reopened to full capacity in three years.

The return of Kim Yeon-koung, who joined the Shanghai Bright Ubest Women’s Volleyball Club for the 2021-2022 season, is bringing a huge number of spectators to the Heungkuk Life’s games. So far, this season's top 4 women’s volleyball attendances have been broken by the Heungkuk Life. Heungkuk Life’s home game broke No. 1 and No. 2 records with Hwaseong IBK Altos with 4,765 fans and a home game with Gwangju Pepper Bank with 4,345 fans. Heungkuk Life also broke No. 3 and NO. 4 records at the away game with Suwon Hyundai Engineering & Construction Hillstate with 3,652 fans and the away game with Daejeon KGC with 3,304 fans. Tickets were sold out for the away-match against Daejeon KGC.

Fans visiting the Incheon stadium by the Seoul Metro subway can listen to Kim’s announcement at the Samsan Stadium station. Heungkuk Life has also installed a logo artwork and photo booth in front of the stadium, giving fans something new to enjoy.


Hong-Gu Kang windup@donga.com