Formed a 300-Member Employee Cheer Squad to Wish for the First Unified Championship
Social Distancing in the Seoul Metropolitan Area Raised to Level 1.5 from the 19th
Sold-Out Tickets to Be Reduced by 3,000 from Game 3
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] NCSoft employees have formed a cheering squad of 300 members to support the NC Dinos professional baseball team as they challenge for their first-ever integrated championship. Led by CEO Kim Taek-jin, the team owner, enthusiasm over the baseball team's strong performance initially led to consideration of having all 3,000 company employees attend the game. However, due to the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and the resulting reduction in allowable spectators, the size of the cheering squad was reduced to about one-tenth.
According to NCSoft on the 17th, 300 company employees will attend as a cheering squad for the first game of the 2020 Korean Series between the NC Dinos and the Doosan Bears, held at 6:30 PM at Gocheok Sky Dome. An NCSoft official said, "Employees have great interest and expectations for the integrated championship as the team finished first in the regular season for the first time and advanced directly to the Korean Series," adding, "We wanted to organize a larger cheering squad, but are disappointed as it is difficult to obtain tickets."
The NC Dinos, founded as a professional baseball team in 2011, advanced to the postseason by finishing second in the 2016 regular season and reached the Korean Series. However, they settled for runner-up after losing to Doosan, their final opponent. This year is the first time they finished first in the regular season and advanced directly to the Korean Series.
All tickets for the NC and Doosan Korean Series games, scheduled through the seventh game on the 25th, have been sold out. However, due to the impact of COVID-19, the government and health authorities plan to raise the social distancing level in the metropolitan area to level 1.5, making ticket rebooking inevitable.
Initially, under social distancing level 1 guidelines, tickets were allocated at about 50% of Gocheok Sky Dome's capacity (17,000 seats), approximately 8,200 tickets per game. However, with the upgrade to level 1.5, the number of spectators allowed must be reduced to 30%. In this case, the number of tickets available per game decreases to 5,100.
Since the metropolitan area social distancing level 1.5 will be applied from midnight on the 19th, games from the third Korean Series game scheduled on the 20th onward must follow the new standard. A government official stated, "We will accept the existing ticket sales for the first and second games as is, and are considering rebooking tickets from the third game onward to comply with the 30% standard," adding, "Detailed guidelines including specific methods will be announced soon."
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