KIA to receive record-high 5.2 billion won in postseason dividends

KIA, the 12-time winner of the Korean Series in professional baseball, is expected to receive the largest postseason (PS) dividend to date. According to the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), this year’s Korean baseball PS attracted a total of 353,550 spectators with the entire 16 sold-out games including two Wild Card games, five Semi-Playoff games, four Playoff games, and five Korean Series games. The KBO earned a record high of approximately 14.6 billion won from entrance tickets, a historic record, surpassing the previous high of 10.4 billion won in 2012 (15 games) by roughly 40%.

Excluding approximately 40% for event-related expenses, about 8.75 billion won in ticket revenue will be divided among the five PS teams. As both the regular season champion (1.75 billion won) and the Korean Series winner (3.5 billion won), KIA will receive a total of 5.25 billion won. This is about 80% more than the 2.943 billion won Team LG received last year as the combined champion.

The KBO league policy stipulates that the regular season winner gets 20% of the dividend, with the Korean Series champion taking 50% of the remaining pool, the runner-up 24%, the Playoff loser 14%, the Semi-Playoff loser 9%, and the Wild Card game loser 3%. Accordingly, Samsung will receive 1.68 billion won, LG 980 million won, KT 630 million won, and Doosan 210 million won.

On top of that, Team KIA will receive a bonus from its mother company, whose exact amount is yet to be released. If the amount is aligned with the bonus cap set by the KBO and its 10 teams, KIA may receive around 7.875 billion won in total.


Hong-Gu Kang windup@donga.com