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Post by SteveW on Oct 23, 2004 21:49:35 GMT -5
Went to the the Tokyo National Stadium (think Seongnam but bigger) to watch Tokyo Verdy vs Shimizu S-Pulse yesterday.
Managed to find the place eventually (why do Asian countries insist in not signposting ANYTHING?) hidden behind the baseball ground, rugby stadium, wrestling place, tiddlywinks arena and shove ha'penny bowl.
First choice was to decide on where to sit so I decided to adopt S-Pulse for the day on the account of having Jo Jae Jin in the team. Nice choice for me....they lost 4-0 and got a guy sent off. OOPS!!
Some observations:
1) The stadium was pretty poor ... big but uncovered. basically a jumped up Seongnam. It was far from full so I'm not sure why they moved it from Tokyo's normal home ground in Ajinomoto (the nig fancy World Cup stadium)
2) It wasn't cheap...2000 yen (20000 won) for a ticket and 500 (5000 won) for a 500ml beer. And they search your bag at the door so I assume taking in your own beer is not allowed. Noone else had any 'outside beverages'. Funnily enough though when I mentioned to a Japanese girl later that I had gone and she asked the price she thought it was 'really cheap' and I suppose compared to other countries it is. We really are spoiled in the K-league with respect to ticket prices.
3) They had dancing girls (At least Tokyo did) but not very impressive. I was too far away to see properly.
4) Beer girls are the shiznit! Even if they are 12! They even come and sit next to you and pour your beer in a room-salon-esque gesture.
5) Jo Jae Jin was rubbish. His whole team were rubbish. They no wear nice orange strips though.
Erm....lots of pics were taken so I can post some if I ever work out how to host pics.
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Post by Holyjoe on Oct 24, 2004 0:11:46 GMT -5
Dancing girls and beer girls?
The J-League have got their stuff sorted ;D
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Post by nyujeelandsaram on Oct 24, 2004 1:12:56 GMT -5
2) It wasn't cheap...2000 yen (20000 won) for a ticket and 500 (5000 won) for a 500ml beer. And they search your bag at the door so I assume taking in your own beer is not allowed. Noone else had any 'outside beverages'. Funnily enough though when I mentioned to a Japanese girl later that I had gone and she asked the price she thought it was 'really cheap' and I suppose compared to other countries it is. We really are spoiled in the K-league with respect to ticket prices. I don't know about spoiled. If it was 20,000 a ticket for the K-League there would be crowds of 50-5,000. The standard of the J-League seems to be weaker than Korea whatever way you look at it so I'd say it's more to do with them being ripped off (unless it's considered a rich young lad or ladess pastime). The 8,000 or 10,000 paid in Korea for a walkup adult ticket is a decent amount of cash compared to what most people in Korea earn. When I think about it, it's cheaper in NZ to watch a pro football game than it is to get a ticket to a Suwon match. I think the ticket prices seem cheap to single guys who make 2 million won in the hand a month like us (well like I was  ) but if you ask the locals then there are very few who have that kind of disposable income and I've heard Koreans saying that they think K-League prices are expensive. If people actually went to the K-League in big numbers and you had to get in quick then you can pretty much guarantee the prices will go up, uppity up. That's my hangover rant for the day.  |
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Post by SteveW on Oct 24, 2004 3:10:59 GMT -5
I don't know about spoiled. If it was 20,000 a ticket for the K-League there would be crowds of 50-5,000. The standard of the J-League seems to be weaker than Korea whatever way you look at it so I'd say it's more to do with them being ripped off (unless it's considered a rich young lad or ladess pastime). The 8,000 or 10,000 paid in Korea for a walkup adult ticket is a decent amount of cash compared to what most people in Korea earn. When I think about it, it's cheaper in NZ to watch a pro football game than it is to get a ticket to a Suwon match. I think the ticket prices seem cheap to single guys who make 2 million won in the hand a month like us (well like I was ) but if you ask the locals then there are very few who have that kind of disposable income and I've heard Koreans saying that they think K-League prices are expensive. If people actually went to the K-League in big numbers and you had to get in quick then you can pretty much guarantee the prices will go up, uppity up. That's my hangover rant for the day. I thought it was expensive at first but when I thought it through the basic ticket price was 10GBP or so. You can't get to an SPL game for that .. I can remember when you could but its double that now. Also to put it in perspective I went for dinner later and the meal for 2 (albeit in a nice place but not THAT nice) was about 125,000 won. So 20,000 for a ticket and 10,000 for 2 beers there didnae seem that bad after that. Despite what people say the standard between Korea and Japan isn't that different ... and I did get to see 4 goals yesterday. I'd say the average age at the game yesterday was older than your K-league crowd. There were more families and older folks ... although the usual bouncy club were there and mostly students probably. I think I could have got a student discount had I been able to read the kanji for student and explain it to the girl at the ticket desk but I'm not sure.  As for the K-league .. I think most Koreans aren't as poor as they make out. The price of a football ticket is the same as the price of a cinema ticket and the cinemas are full to bursting on most weekends. Also, season tickets are dirt cheap. As I said, they are just spoiled with regards to ticket prices. |
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Post by ironops on Oct 24, 2004 3:19:37 GMT -5
Steve, was that the cheapest ticket you could get, and was it for an unreserved, sit where you like area?
Actually 2000yen IS cheaper than you'd often pay for a J-League game. I've often paid 4000yen or more for a seat in a reserved area. (And more people than most foreigners realise are on pretty shit pay in Japan too)
I'd agree with you then, that K-league fans are spoiled rotten in terms of admission prices. But, like lots of people who are spoiled, they don't realise it. Like NZsaram, I've also heard some Koreans say they think the K-League is expensive. But I'm not really sure what they're comparing it with.
Oh yeah, Steve, gakusei waribiki Šw¶Š„ˆø, sometimes shortened to gaku-wari ŠwŠ„ is what you want to say for student discount.
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Post by SteveW on Oct 24, 2004 5:10:30 GMT -5
Steve, was that the cheapest ticket you could get, and was it for an unreserved, sit where you like area? Actually 2000yen IS cheaper than you'd often pay for a J-League game. I've often paid 4000yen or more for a seat in a reserved area. (And more people than most foreigners realise are on pretty shit pay in Japan too) I'd agree with you then, that K-league fans are spoiled rotten in terms of admission prices. But, like lots of people who are spoiled, they don't realise it. Like NZsaram, I've also heard some Koreans say they think the K-League is expensive. But I'm not really sure what they're comparing it with. Oh yeah, Steve, gakusei waribiki Šw¶Š„ˆø, sometimes shortened to gaku-wari ŠwŠ„ is what you want to say for student discount. Yeah 2000 was the lowest price for the unreserved seating behind the goals. It was 3000 for a seat on the sides up to 5000 and 5500 for the covered area in the VIP seats. Do you know what the Kanji looks like for student price? And do the games offer them? I saw three prices...I assumed one was normal bloke, the cheapest would be kid...the one in the middle...maybe student or concession or something??? 500 yen off is a beer  |
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Post by ironops on Oct 24, 2004 8:49:08 GMT -5
Šw¶@is student (gakusei)
‚¶@is high school student (koukusei)
I've never really investigated the exact student discounts offered as it's never applied to me. But usually there'll be a normal price plus a student one, however that might be only for up to high school students and no older, depends on the place. I recommend flashing your student ID and saying gakusei waribiki (kanji as in above post) in a vaguely menacing tone; you'll probably get the lower price regardless of whether you're supposed to or not!
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Post by nyujeelandsaram on Oct 24, 2004 9:53:00 GMT -5
You might be able to get some sort of 10 game discount card as well? Although not sure whether there's that many games left in their season  I know at Anyang it was 6,000 for general admission but you could get a 10 game card for 30,000 AND a supporters scarf sold for 20,000 thrown in as well. Now that's cheap! When I talk about the K-League not being that cheap I'm really referring to the standard of the league and the average wage in Korea being about 1.5 million a month. And if you are earning 2 million with a wife and kids and paying 400,000 a month rent plus running a car and all the other expenses then paying up to 25,000 for the family then it might not be too attractive, especially if you live in Busan or Bucheon  Compared to a movie ticket it's not too bad but they can charge what they want for them because as you notice Steve, people actually go to the movies in Korea. They don't go to the footie though |
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Post by Holyjoe on Oct 24, 2004 22:22:21 GMT -5
If I knew I was going to be allowed to get to so many football games this season then I would have bought a Suwon season ticket... works out much cheaper than paying at the gate each week Next season then... ;D |
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Post by SteveW on Oct 25, 2004 1:44:08 GMT -5
Compared to a movie ticket it's not too bad but they can charge what they want for them because as you notice Steve, people actually go to the movies in Korea. They don't go to the footie though Yeah but its not because of the cost obviously. So football isn't too expensive its just not appealling enough. |
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Post by nyujeelandsaram on Oct 25, 2004 3:44:27 GMT -5
Yeah but its not because of the cost obviously. So football isn't too expensive its just not appealling enough. Yep. Much harder to take that cute Korean princess to some scummy K-League game than it is to the new Korean slapstick romantic comedy, followed by coffee shop, hof, love motel and shot gun wedding.... on second thoughts |
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Post by redneck13 on Oct 25, 2004 22:27:27 GMT -5
Bier bitte.
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) but if you ask the locals then there are very few who have that kind of disposable income and I've heard Koreans saying that they think K-League prices are expensive.
