BASEBALL/Over 2 million attend CPBL regular season games for first time

Taipei, Aug. 24 (CNA) The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) reached a milestone by surpassing 2 million in regular season attendance for the first time after over 5,000 fans attended Friday's game between the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions and the Fubon Guardians.

The Taiwan pro league was on the verge of making history before Friday, with 1,998,794 tickets sold for its previous regular-season games. That night, the record was officially broken when 5,322 fans attended the game at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium.

The Guardians took a 2-1 lead when slugger Yu Chang (張育成) smashed a two-run homer in the top of the fifth inning, marking his sixth home run since joining the team via the mid-season draft in July.

However, the Uni-Lions secured a walk-off win in the 10th when pinch hitter Pan Chieh-kai (潘傑楷) was hit by a pitch from Chiang Kuo-hao (江國豪) with the bases loaded.

The game was the 15th extra-inning contest of the season.

As of Friday, the CPBL has played 269 games, attracting 2,016,289 spectators, with an average attendance of 7,495 per game -- up 24.9 percent from 6,000 per game last year. Both the total attendance and the average are new records in the league's 35-year history.

The previous total attendance record was set in 2023, with 1,800,130 spectators over 300 games, while the 1992 season held the record for highest average attendance, with 6,878 fans per game.

The league's popularity has continued from the pre-season, during which turnout nearly tripled to 93,074 across 30 games -- one more game than last year.

The significant increase in attendance may partly be attributed to the opening of the Taipei Dome, the country's first indoor baseball venue with over 40,000 seats and air conditioning.

The 30 games held at the Taipei Dome have drawn a total of 580,390 spectators, averaging 19,346 per game. The highest attendance at the Dome came on Aug. 3, when 34,506 tickets were sold for a game between the CTBC Brothers and the Guardians.

With the addition of the TSG Hawks, the CPBL expanded to six teams this year and will host 360 regular-season games, including eight more games scheduled at the Taipei Dome in September.