[풋볼리스트=전주] Reporter Hyo-yong Yoon = Fans visiting Jeonbuk Hyundai are slowing down.
Jeonbuk and Seoul drew 0-0 in the 30th round of ‘Hana One Q K League 1 2022’ at 7 pm on the 7th at Jeonju World Cup Stadium. As a result, Jeonbuk ended in a draw in three consecutive K League matches following the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Champions League (ACL), and the gap between Ulsan Hyundai and Ulsan Hyundai, which defeated Suwon Samsung on the same day, widened to 10 points.
Fans’ dissatisfaction exploded. After the game, more than 100 Jeonbuk supporters gathered in front of the club bus. “Kim Sang-sik out! Heo Byung-gil out!” and demanded an interview. The meeting did not take place. Director Kim Sang-sik said that he would ‘talk with some fans inside’, but it was not accepted. In the end, coach Kim Sang-sik, along with the coaching staff, broke through in front of the fans and headed for the club bus. CEO Heo Byung-gil was more silent. He said ‘I will arrange a seat later’, but he did not show up in front of the fans until the end.
The dissatisfaction isn’t just among the supporters. It is also leading to a decrease in the total number of home audiences. The official number of spectators who visited the stadium that day was 4,121. The number of home audiences for a club that has won the K-League trophy for the past five years is quite small. Seoul fans, who are not in a good mood for the team, did not visit the away game much, but there were more than 2,000 fewer than the average crowd.
Jeonbuk’s average audience this season is 6,186, and the total number of spectators is 92,802. In terms of the average audience, FC Seoul (9,422 people) ranked first, and Ulsan Hyundai (6,382 people) came in second place. Compared to the 2019 season, which was before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), there is a big difference. According to the statistics of the Professional Football Federation, there were 219,362 players in 15 home matches in the 2019 season. It was a big difference compared to Ulsan, which had 134,135 spectators for 15 home games at the time. However, this season, Ulsan is lagging behind not only in performance but also in the number of spectators.
Even taking into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the figure has fallen significantly. K-League clubs have reduced their total spectators by regarding 40,000 to 60,000 due to the impact of COVID-19. However, Jeonbuk decreased by a whopping 126,560 from the 2019 season.
Of course, the team that has lost the most is FC Seoul. About 140,000 home audiences fell. In a simple comparison, the figure is higher than that of Jeonbuk. However, the situation is different with Jeonbuk. Jeonbuk won the league championship in 2019, 2020 and 2021 seasons. After ranking 3rd in 2019, Seoul is going through difficult times, ranking 9th in 2020 season and 7th in 2021 season. This season, they are still in the 8th place and have not been able to escape the slump. On the other hand, Jeonbuk was only down one place in the ranking. Competition for the championship with Ulsan has always been a thing, and in the past two seasons, they even won the championship in second place. The reason why the home crowd fell sharply at a time when the competition for the championship was still not over cannot be justified by the performance alone.
There are analyzes that the club is going through a transitional period internally. At the beginning of this season, Jeonbuk general manager Baek Seung-kwon resigned due to poor grades, and CEO Heo Byung-gil is also taking over the role of general manager. Since then, there have been many changes in personnel transfers and budget allocation. An employee who has been in charge of recruiting for a long time has also moved to the marketing department. Changes that seem to have no apparent reason are causing confusion. This change also had an impact on Jeonbuk’s creaky recruitment process this summer.
Offline publicity to local residents is also decreasing. Jeonbuk reduced the Gyeonggi promotion banners hanging in downtown Jeonju. No more for buses. This is a change that occurred while strengthening online promotion rather than offline. The cost of producing online and new media contents has increased. However, the effect does not appear. On the contrary, the number of spectators continues to fall. Jeollabuk-do is still in second place simply because of the lack of performance and results.
Rival team Ulsan still maintains offline promotion. In cooperation with the Facilities Corporation, home game promotion banners are posted on overpasses and other places in the city to promote home games. Advertisements using local TV stations are also being sent out. While continuing to induce local residents to visit home games, online publicity is gradually increasing.
Jeonbuk was in the K League as a ‘leading club’. This is because there was an administration of the club that helped the team in both ways. Rather than excessive change, we should pursue something new while maintaining what we did well. It is the responsibility of the captain who holds the helm of Jeonbuk.
Photo = Korea Professional Football Federation
