Seongnam won it after about 5 weeks. Ulsan pretended like they might make a go of it for a while, but they go and lose to teams like Daegu. 10 rounds left and Seongnam have a 10 point break with two games in hand, so it's effectively a 13-16 point lead. game over yay
The best way to ensure that happens is for Suwon to go out and beat them themselves (getting to be a regular habit now ) God bless you, Nadson
I will never fall in love with another foreign player ever again. Go to hell Lee Seong-nam, you! I'm telling you man. Before Anyang starts thinking about beating us, they should learn their manners first. Breaking chairs?! The Suwonites paid for those damn chairs. My mother donated money to make a chair. Her name is on one of those chairs! Its like blood and money! Godddamn. Dirty factory working chimpanzees.
KIM HO to Seoul FC. Please let this happen. He's the only manager in Korea who doesn't just think about the present but also thinks of the future and actually knows how to manage a club. He also happens to be the only manager in Korea who isn't a complete jerk-wad. The greatest domestic footie coach must coach for my hometown. This is the dude that engineered South Korea to our most respectable showing prior to Hiddink and almost to the second round in 94 USA, had our players didn't let their nerves get the best of them(yes I'm painfully recollecting our nil-nil game against Bolivia; a game in which we dominated and squandored ucler inducing clear-cut goal opportunities through horrid finishing). ¿ì¸®³ª¶ó¼±¼öµéÀÌ »ðÁú¸¸ ¾ÈÇÞ½º¸é Àû¾îµµ16°_ ±îÁö´Â °«°ÙÁö. À¸¾Æ~ ±×¶§¾öû ¾Æ½¬¿ö¼_ µÚÁö´ÂÁپ˾Ѵ٠9»ìÀ̾ù´ø ¾î¸°¸¶À½À» Á¿³ª°Ô°í»ý½ÃÄѳõ°í....
I think you have us confused with Ansan. However, as your supporters can't keep their mouths shut and fingers to themselves when they leave a stadium they had better learn some manners themselves.
blahblabhalbalbhlahbalbhalblahblah you guys are just jealous of our team, our coach, and our stadium.
yeah, I wish we couldn't score any goals as well. Your coach is leaving. Your stadium is losing money.
On the other hand, at least our defence doesn't leak like Jenna Jameson after a wild session Just have a wee look at the league table one more time... I'd rather have that, thank you very much
HJ you filthy sod! My knees are already sore just thinking about our game on sunday. What's that you'll play?! Friday night at Rockssin is openmic night if you are keen. njsaram (in case you guys forgot tis me on my work comp with a different log in name)
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/sports/200310/kt2003102819241311120.htm World Cup Boom Turns to K-League Bust as Media Show No Interest Shortly before leaving work on Sunday night, I noticed the main evening news was finishing, and put down my bag to see what the sports news would have to say. The Songnam Chunma had become K-League champions on Saturday as the Ulsan Tigers failed to get a win over the Anyang Cheetahs that would delay the celebrations at least by 24 hours. Sunday saw Songnam play away against the Pohang Steelers, under no pressure and able to celebrate their third successive title. It was the weekend that decided the highest domestic football honor in the land of World Cup Fever. You wouldn¡¯t have known it by watching this particular broadcast, however. The sports news led off with the World Series, perhaps understandable if you were watching the Armed Forces Network, but on domestic prime time? This was followed by the Korean Series, and then domestic basketball, before Songnam and the K-League got a spot that lasted less than 30 seconds. It would probably be unfair to single out the broadcaster involved, since MBC _ oops _ probably differed little from KBS or SBS on the night. Only a few diehards believe all the guff about South Korea being a football lover¡¯s paradise, or continue to hold onto the hope that the World Cup would produce a spectacular upsurge in support for the domestic game. But it seems that in terms of media coverage, football in this country gets a raw deal. The broadcasters complain that they do not get ratings that justify greater coverage, but a large part of the blame lies in the amateurish presentation of the games they do show. KBS and SBS, who bought the rights to broadcast the K-League for five years, complained that the ratings were so low that they simply gave up carrying games. Now, you don¡¯t have to be a product of Harvard Business School to figure out that something¡¯s wrong here. If you have bought a product, and have a commitment to stock it for five years, and find not enough people are buying it, it surely makes less since to put it in cold storage, and more to put some effort into making it more attractive to your target market. So rather than preaching about broadcasters in a capitalist economy having any perceived ``duty¡± to do football a service, let¡¯s look at it from the viewpoint that, handled properly, K-League football could be a successful product. Up to now, the approach has been brain-numbingly monotonous: Tune in five minutes before kick-off for some droning comment against a static background of a near-empty stadium, watch a full live game and then see the credits roll as the final whistle goes _ riveting stuff. Could it be done differently? Four words _ Match of the Day. The BBC¡¯s flagship football show for decades provided football fans with a quality package, and was the indoctrination into the sport for several generations. Its format provided a user-friendly appeal for people who liked their football but didn¡¯t have the time or inclination to watch live games. Over the years, millions of fans tuned in regularly to get three games in extended highlight form, 15 to 20 minutes of action without the dross _ and the goals from the remaining fixtures. This frantic football fix was offset by expert comment that would enlighten viewers, or prompt volleys of dissent. Whether this format could be repeated in Korea depends on a couple of factors. The first is whether any of the major broadcasters would have the courage to give it a try, and a slot that would go up against the tried-and-tested inanity of the soaps and gameshows. A little innovation could go a long way _ there are times when you can change channel in the evening and not realize it. Furthermore, a 10 or 10:30 p.m. slot would mean being able to reach the actual K-League fans, many of whom can not watch live games for the simple reason that they are in the stadium. Another crucial requirement is the production of a quality program. This means producers, and more critically presenters and guests, who know and are passionate about football. The BBC¡¯s football coverage is anchored by Gary Lineker, top scorer in the 1986 World Cup. The studio experts, former Liverpool stars Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson, have a roomful of trophies between them. Even the career commentator will have a former player or manager providing the color. In Korea, where sportsmen and women have long been regarded as mindless automatons, the athletes themselves are rarely trusted to have valid opinions about the activities by which they make a living. There are encouraging signs, however, that the younger generation of fans is becoming more discerning. MBC¡¯s World Cup coverage, which made liberal use of the expert comment of former Bundesliga star Cha Bum-keun and three-time Asian Player of the Year Kim Joo-sung enjoyed increased ratings, especially among younger viewers. More players should be encouraged to choose careers in broadcasting and other media over poorly-paid assistant coach jobs under bosses determined to hang onto their positions as long as possible. The K-League authorities can also play a part. The current farcical situation appears set to continue up to the end of 2005, when the broadcasting rights deal with KBS and SBS expires. One idea would be for the league to offer the rights at rock-bottom, or free, but include a provision in the contract that at least an hour per week must be broadcast, and between, say, 8 p.m. and midnight. Giving away anything for free may be anathema to officials who cut their teeth in chaebol-land, but the current arrangement is providing practically nothing beyond the initial down-payment. The league¡¯s authorities bear responsibility for increasing the popularity of football, and part of this is making it profitable for the media. The World Cup boom was not acted on quickly enough. Handled properly, this could have been the easy way. Time and opportunities have been let slip away, and the K-League is facing a hard slog with bleak prospects. Eoghan Sweeney Sports Editor 10-28-2003 19:25
K-League Clubs Must Learn How to Market Themselves Korea Times October 24, 2003 Park Song-wu Staff Reporter http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/sports/200310/kt2003102419485711120.htm Showman PT Barnum once said "There's no such thing as bad publicity". Such thoughts may well be occurring to many in domestic football as they watch how events in Oman have put the national team all over the front pages in the past few days. The amount of column inches that have been devoted to South Korea losses to Vietnam and Oman are the sort of coverage K-League clubs can only dream about. Attendances have also been poor this season, with stadiums rarely filled even for highly publicized games. Only 1,700 people turned up to see reigning champions the Songnam Chunma beat the Pohang Steelers 1-0 at Songnam stadium on Oct. 15. With the home victory, Songnam need only one more win to take their sixth K-League title. The celebrations, however, are likely to be humble. Things have changed from last year, when World Cup fever still hovered around. The good times have gone and the average number of spectators per game this year has plummeted to 9,800, down 4,800 from last year. "We failed to extend the World Cup passion, said Han Sang-woo, a K-League public relations official. "The two new teams?(Sangmu Phoenix and Daegu F.C.) performances were not satisfactory, cutting the average number of spectators. Han also said weekend games during the summer vacation, when students would have been expected to fill the stadiums, were in many cases hit by rain. Experts, however, believe there is a more telling reason for the empty seats. "Football games are a kind of commodity produced by the football clubs, said Prof. Lee Young-hoon of Hansung University, ``but they don't have a business mindset. Marketing is the next thing they should think about after working out how to produce a good game. Lee, whose specialty is sports economics, explained that the K-League had problems from its startup in 1983 when two professional and three amateur teams began the "Super League. "The military regime (of Chun Doo-hwan) launched the league (to divert people dissatisfaction with the political situation). Lee said. "They had no fans and had to depend on financial support from their parent companies. So, they tried to perform well to enhance the image of their parent companies. Team owners? negligence in serving the fans resulted in poor attendances, which, in turn, caused the clubs to build up chronic deficits. "However, the economic hardship in 1997 sparked a big change, Lee said. ``Now the parent companies can't funnel much money to their sports arms as they did before. In baseball, the Haitai Tigers and Ssangbangwool Raiders suffered a lot and were bought out by other companies after their parent companies went bankrupt. Football teams also have to learn how to stand on their feet. In the K-League, the Daejeon Citizen were hardest hit by the economic turmoil. Their biggest shareholder, Kyeryong Construction, drastically reduced its financial support in November last year after the Citizen finished the 2002 season in last place with an embarrassing record of one win, 11 draws and 15 losses. ``We were awakened and realized that Daejeon Citizen should belong to the people of Daejeon, said Park Moon-woo, director of the football club executive office. "That was the starting point of our shift to the current shape of the Daejeon Citizen. Something must be going right, with the onfield transformation meaning the Citizen look set for a top six finish in the 12-team K-League. "Early on, we had six straight home wins, Park said. "We have tried to make heartfelt efforts. The results are not the most important thing. We had to gain people recognition that we are doing our best. Their efforts paid off with increased attendances, reaching a peak of 43,000 _ in the 42,000-capacity Daejeon World Cup Stadium _ on June 18 when the Citizen hosted the Ulsan Tigers. So far, the season average for home games is 19,560. The effects are showing, with the team boasting a 73.7 percent winning average at home, compared to 34.2 percent away. Daejeon Citizen have also paid attention to providing events that can capture the imagination of the fans, such as treasure hunts and essay contests before or after matches. "I don't think having a pop singer singing on the pitch is a proper service for fans, Park said. "A football stadium is not a good place for such a concert. Instead, we have tried to prepare events families can enjoy all together. "The Daejeon Citizen club is owned by the people, Park said. "That is the difference from other clubs run by big companies. We will keep up our efforts and work hard to be truly a citizen's football club.
If you are interested in the K-League and where it is heading (ie nowhere fast) you might find the two articles above interesting. If you are not interested or already know the above then don't read it. Also here is one I wrote in about June and was published in July. Slightly old but nothing has changed of course... http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/200307/kt2003070717114711390.htm A K-League Call to Arms By Jamie Murdoch As a recent convert to the joys of the K-League I felt compelled to throw my ten won in on the competition that promises so much but delivers to so few. I am speaking of the miserable crowds that the K-League continues to get. Last season the average crowd for a match was 15,839. This season after 18 rounds the average crowd is 10,608. This years figure is at pre-World Cup levels which must be a disappointment to everyone, not just myself. Especially considering South Korea has 48 million inhabitants and is measured as the third most densely-populated country in the world. My ¡®hometown¡¯ Auckland (New Zealand), sold out their 48,000 seat stadium three weeks in a row for big Super 12 rugby matches earlier this season, and ALL 69 matches were live on TV throughout the duration of the competition. Auckland has a population barely larger than that of Suwon. So what is the problem in Korea? For starters I believe the chaebol ownership of so many teams is in fact doing more harm than good. These corporations appear to be only interested in the glory of owning a professional sports team, and have little or no promotional skills when it comes to professional sport. Why else would they prop up teams that are reported to earn less than 30 percent of their annual running costs? If the owners of the various teams are truly interested in making the K-League work then they need to focus on these words _ identity, pride and representation. The clubs, in conjunction with various city halls, must start fostering some community spirit in ¡®K-League cities¡¯. They need to make us feel that we own the team, not some ¡®fat cats¡¯ in a Kangnam boardroom. I am not surprised to see that a team without chaebol backing, and one which has displayed some enterprising marketing techniques this season, is getting the biggest average home crowds, namely Daejeon Citizen with 22,146. At the moment in the rest of the K-League the marketing and promotion appears to revolve around the use of small trucks with loud speakers on the day of the game, and hanging a few banners from light poles. If you want to buy a team shirt you basically have one option. Go to the ground on a match day and hand your hard-earned won over to some young supporters manning a shop the size of a pie cart, containing a miserable selection of merchandise. In fact it seems that most of the visible promotional work and match day hype is left up to these passionate few. I am like most people when I go to watch professional sport. I want to see good quality sport played in a decent atmosphere. Sitting in a deserted stand is never great fun regardless of how good the footie is. And until the marketing improves drastically there will not be too many people joining the current diehards in the near future. Apart from some basic marketing improvements, the key area that the marketers and administrators need to focus on is television. The coverage is poor to put it mildly. A few regional stations cover local matches and the major networks pick up games intermittently, but recently several rounds have passed without any of these national stations showing any live coverage whatsoever. Compare that to pro baseball in Korea. On the day of writing, SBS is screening over nine hours of KBO coverage in a 24-hour period. Aside from the lack of game time on TV, where is all the hype? Where are the TV commercials making people want to smash down the front door, buy a team shirt, steal a moped and get to the ground ASAP? Something along the lines of rock music played over the top of shots of fans pouring through the turnstiles in team colors, Mexican waves, colorful banners and delirious supporters interspersed with clips of flying bicycle kick goals, 35-yard screamers and ¡®whacko¡¯ goal celebrations. Hey, it works everywhere else, so why not here? The venues are generally excellent and the footie itself is good and getting better, with most of the Korean national squad and all of the up-and-comers from the Olympic squad still on show here. On top of that the league is expanding rapidly with new teams in Daegu and Gwangju, a team from Incheon arriving in 2004 and others proposed for Goyang, and Seoul in the near future. So if the clubs do eventually become responsible for their own financial management, and decide to pour their hearts into the promotion of the league then we may finally, after 21 years, see the crowds and the atmosphere that both the players and the supporters deserve. ** The author is an avid fan and season ticket holder of the Anyang LG Cheetahs. 07-07-2003 17:12
Jamie Very well written. Couldn't have said that better myself. Recall that I have written something similar in Korean and have spread it around the Korean boards. Oddly, i have recieved negative feedback and the majority still blamed the fall of the K-League in general at the people who only root on the NATs. However, I did get quite a few people to agree but they also said "what do we know? nothing can be done". What is the purpose is the people don't give a flying *#*#*#*#? They don't understand what they are missing out on and the club owners don't really give a damn because the people don;t care. A continuous chain going on and on ; unbreakable. Tis is the time for some solid marketting and promoting. I am actually glad that SK are selling Bucheon. Perhaps one day we'll see a Bucheon F.C. risen on their own, playing in front of a descent crowd and atmosphere. Some day Suwonites will wear blue and go to open plaza's to watch the Bluewings play the Cheaters because they couldn't get tickets. Sounds like a dream but a team in Seoul and some marketting is the key to the sledghammer that will break the goddamn chain. I basically repeated what you said but we have one difference: I'm finding myself watching more and more baseball (Mariner's!), basketball (sonics...we want gary!), and football (huskies and the seahawks). I have never ever been to Seattle before and have never really lived in the States. But I guess you can call it bandwagon but I'm starting to feel as if Seattle is my city. Comparing the atmosphere here in the States, to Korea, I am afriad to say that I am slowly losing hope in Korean professional sports.
cheers, I often wonder what Koreans are into. Not meaning to be negative or anything. I just can't see what rocks peoples boats here. I mean playing computer games seems to suck 50% of young peoples free time up. Outside of that only getting hammered in a hof and going to coffee shops on dates seems to be of any interest to most. I ask my students what they do/did in the weekends (they are all in their 20s) and it's always..."part-time job", "met friends for coffee", "drank soju". That's it. A differing answer is as rare as hens teeth. No travelling, no playing sport, no watching sport, nothing in the outdoors... I'm not saying they should be supporting sport because many people actually hate it, but when it's well promoted it's more about the social atmosphere that people like anyway. Afterall supporting a team is more about having a laugh anyway at the end of the day for 75% of the supporters. And it's funny because I think a lot of people would have got a sense of that from the WC. But I guess when they poured into the stadiums in droves after the W.C. and found the atmosphere couldn't match it and they realised they really didn't like football as much as they thought they might they all sodded off. It would be nice though for the pro-teams to at least give the population some other options for their saturday and sunday nights. At Anyang our stadium is perfect to go to sat or sunday day or night then head into town (10 minutes away) and eat dinner or get on the booze, or even just go home. But most of the supporters are either school aged girls or families which is great. But where are the hundreds of thousands of people aged 20-40 that live within 15 minutes drive of the ground?? It's not exactly expensive either. The rugby tickets that were selling out that I mentioned in my article are 15-20,000 won for the absloute cheapest seats. Most people are paying 20,000+. Here it's 6,000 for the best seats in the house and about 3,000 for kids. imagine the crowds if the put the prices up to anything near aboroad figures. There would be crowds of below 500 to some games. My mother who is no expert by any means watches every rugby/rugby league/cricket game on TV in NZ without fail and has done so for 30 years. Along with my sisters, uncles, aunts...and whoever the hell else. Just different cultures of course (so don't get on my case) but as we know, sport is supa stuff!!!! j
Here are the crowd stats I keep for the K-League on this site: http://busanicons.hyperboards.com/index.cgi Bear in mind that all these figures are grossly inflated by each team and they are more like a third of what they say... (ie 6,000 season average...) Round 39 Total attendance for the season: 2,200,383 (231 games) Season average: 9,525 Excluding the opening games for each team the average is now down to 9,002 !!!!!!!! Sunday crowd average: 12,606 (100) Sunday night: 13,009 (31) Sunday day: 12,426 (69) Saturday average: 7,286 (39) Saturday night: 7,376 (23) Saturday day: 7,158 (16) Wednesday average: 7,125 (92) Wednesday night: 7,256 (88) Wednesday day: 4,230 (4) Night games: 8,531 (142) Day games: 11,110 (89) Team averages and city population in brackets 1 Daejeon 19,560...(1,423,000) 2 Jeonbuk 13,726...(555,000) 3 Suwon 12,196...(957,000) 4 Anyang 11,170...(748,000) 5 Daegu 11,056...(2,369,000 6 Ulsan 9,325...(838,000) 7 Jeonnam 7,946...(571,000) 8 Pohang 7,640...(408,000) 9 Seongnam 7,639...(1,111,000) 10 Bucheon 6,031...(987,000) 11 Gwangju 5,677...(1,406,000) 12 Busan 2,889...(3,504,000) + Anyang excludes a 'home' game played in Changwon (11,820) + Jeonnam excludes a 'home' game in Suncheon (11,830) + Ulsan excludes a 'home' game in Masan (5,320) + Jeonbuk excludes a 'home' game in Iksan (8,509)
No matter how hard the times. No matter what obstacles lay in front of me. No matter how messed up the K-League is....No matter how much LeBron James is a great basketball player...no matter how much i lie to myself that Kim Byung-hun is a world class finisher..no matter how much i try to convince myself that College is a time to party (which isnt)....I KEEP IT REAL. SUWON BLUEWINGS The Champions of Asia.
You guys are gonna be like the English with "66" if you keep that up. Suwon fan: "I remember when Suwon last won the Asian championship, way back in 2001...as if it was yesterday". Suwon fans poor offspring: "Grandad that was 56 years ago and Anyang has won it nine times since then...". Suwon fan: "What's that dear?, I can't hear you, Iv'e got chicken feathers stuck in my ears".
Suwon fan: "Wasn't there a K-league team in Anyang once upon a time?" Suwon fan's dad: "Yes there was son... but they moved to Seoul ages ago. Muhahahahaha"
Suwon fan's midget nephew offspring: Wasn't there a team in Anyang once uncle Mary? Suwon fan (note there is only one Suwon fan left by this time...2010): Yes, but they won the league from 2004-2009 and so Samsung kicked them out.