Baseball in Seoul, South Korea (Nexen Heroes)
Of the three teams in Seoul, the Nexen Heroes are the only ones that don’t play in Jamsil. Doosan and LG are closer to Gangnam, and Nexen is closer to Hongdae. They were founded in 2008, and are one the younger teams in the league. They offer an experience that no one else in the KBO can, which is giving you indoor baseball. For a more in depth look at the action, let’s break it down to what you can expect at a Nexen game.
The Facility
The Nexen Heroes are the only team in the KBO that play in a domed stadium. The Gocheok Sky Dome is the newest stadium in the league, with it opening in 2015. During the summer, Seoul can be infamous for rainy days and humid heat waves. The indoor air conditioning gives them a definite leg up in the comfort department.
The stadium is on the metro Line 1, which connects directly to Seoul Station. This makes it simple and easy to get to, although it isn’t exactly in a central area of the city.
As a domed stadium, this one felt smaller than any baseball dome I had been in before. It only seats about 16,000 fans, and its mini-stature becomes apparent with only one step in from the concourse. The fact you are inside has an effect that makes you feel much closer to the game than you are in actuality, which is great. The enclosed space also captures sound like no other ballpark in the league, and it was probably the loudest stadium I’ve been in, simply due to this fact. The lights are bright, but there’s no sun in your face. It’s a cozy atmosphere overall, which will satisfy any fan that places comfort as their highest priority.
Ticket Prices
As with most things in life, comfort and convenience almost always come at a premium price. Although they do not have a famous reputation, they possess what are undoubtedly the most expensive tickets I have seen in the league. I paid ₩22,000 (or roughly $20.00) for a seat that was less than half that price at the Munhak Baseball Park in Incheon. Some fans are willing to pay a higher price, so that they don’t have to deal with the outdoor sunshine and weather. For others, it isn’t the same case. It is a beautiful dome, but just be warned that this stadium is not as cheap as the others. Overall for prices, it is what can be expected from a typical baseball game stateside, but the cheaper prices is to me one of the more appealing aspects of the KBO, and here the novelty is slightly lost.
The Food
With a little bit of searching, I was able to find a unique hot dog that I hadn’t seen before. By one of the entrances, there was a small stand that had chicken, squid, and hot dogs; they were all on a stick.
Clearly, what you see here is not your average hot dog. It was inside of a rolled croissant, cut up with scissors, and served to me in a plastic cup with a mini-skewer. In its essence, it was a microcosm of what KBO Baseball is all about. It took a common tradition, and through ingenuity and innovation, made its own untraditional invention. It was an unorthodox presentation to say the least, and I’m still not sure if I could call what I ate a “hot dog”, but it was a highlight of the day nonetheless.
Other than the “croissant dog”, there aren’t an overwhelming amount of food options to choose from. The stadium feels a bit empty inside, and there are only about two locations of the same three to five local chains throughout the complex. You can choose from unconventional hot dogs, to normal burgers, shrimp boxes, takoyaki, and pizza. But don’t worry, there’s definitely chicken and beer, as well. At any Korean stadium, there will always be a selection of chicken and beer to choose from, but this stadium had only one chain to choose from, which is BBQ Olive Chicken. Besides Pizza Hut, there weren’t any familiar brands to available, however the Steff Hot Dog from my SK Wyverns game made another appearance. To keep with the same theme as the tickets, prices for food at the Sky Dome were marked up as well. The same Steff Hot Dog I purchased in Incheon was about $1 more expensive at this stadium. I was also dissatisfied for how much a beer costs inside the stadium. It was about $4.50 for 500ml and $7.00 for 1L. Maybe the habit of Korean baseball is turning me soft, but paying $7.00 for a beer was getting too close to American prices for me, and I wasn’t having it.
Luckily, as with any baseball game in Korea, there’s always a convenience store to the rescue. Directly outside the stadium, there is an E-Mart 24 convenience store, which sells all of the beer, alcohol, and affordable foods anybody could ask for. In this store, the same liter of beer only costs $4.00, and my friend snagged a 375ml bottle of Smirnoff for about $8.00.
As another warning, the Gocheok Sky Dome has some of the toughest security I have seen in the KBO. Not only did they request that my friend open his backpack for inspection prior to entering, but they also notified him that he couldn’t openly bring a bottle of hard liquor into the stadium. We stepped aside for only five minutes, promptly mixed the vodka with a couple bottles of mango juice, and there were suddenly no more issues.
The Fans
With a struggling up-and-coming team that is in a heavily saturated baseball city, it wasn’t surprising to find out that Nexen has the least amount of fans in Seoul. On this day, they went up against the KIA Tigers. This is a team that is from Gwangju, has the most championships in the league, and one of the most passionate fan bases to along with it all. What was surprising was how much the Nexen fans would find themselves outnumbered in their own stadium. Normally a KBO ballpark is comprised of three-quarters of home fans and a quarter of away fans. I’m not joking when I say that at this game the proportions were flipped. When the traveling Tigers came up to bat, the stadium erupted with songs and cheers. I am not a fan of Nexen, and throughout the game I couldn’t help but wonder if the experience would be better had I chosen to sit in the away end. Perhaps there’s a chance I take that opportunity the next time Doosan comes to visit.
There were definitely some quirky, as well as familiar, activities in between innings. During one break in the action, they invited some lucky fans to come to the cheerleading stage. They then proceeded to have them pour a bottle of water on their hair, as they danced around. They had a foot race along the warning track, where three fans ran for their lives while holding water tubes around their waists. Then, there was the classic Korean beer chugging contest, where three fans battled it out. Enough spectacles for everybody, and that’s not even considering how the actual game of baseball went.
Although they were outnumbered at home, which I’m sure is a tough pill to swallow, the Nexen fans put on a show, with their team returning the favor. There were a lot of home runs and big hits throughout the game. The Heroes took the lead midway through the game, and finished with a decisive result.
Final Score
If you’re in Seoul and want to catch a game, there are two options, which are either staying close to the central city and going to a Doosan/LG game in Jamsil or going slightly out of your way to make it to the Gocheok Sky Dome. A Nexen Heroes game will not feature a big party atmosphere, and maybe you’re better off not even rooting for the home team. The prices will be higher, the food and drink options will be less plentiful, and security could be a little tighter. But, this stadium can offer one thing no other stadium in Korea can, which is indoor baseball. If you’re in the city with limited time, and the weather isn’t abiding by your schedule, the Nexen Heroes could be there to save the day. For that, maybe they’re not the Heroes you deserve, but the ones you just might need one day.
