The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) is to start a new season tomorrow, after last year’s attendance reached a record high as the league started to hold games at the Taipei Dome.
Taiwan’s professional baseball league sold 2,766,386 tickets for its regular-season games last year, for an average of 7,684 per game, along with 38 games at the Taipei Dome.
It was an increase of nearly 30 percent compared with an average of 6,000 per game in 2023.
Photo: CNA
Team Taiwan won their first major international title at the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s (WBSC) Premier12 in November last year after the CPBL season ended, and have also qualified for next year’s World Baseball Classic.
The mania for international baseball games is expected to contribute to a further growth in attendance for CPBL games, as it vowed to turn a “new chapter” this year.
CPBL president Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said he hopes baseball fans would support this year’s games by attending.
“We value regular season attendance. I hope we can bring back the remarkable fan atmosphere that we saw at Premier12,” he said.
“My job is to broaden the market of professional baseball. I am happy that players are signing lucrative contracts,” he added, referring to Chiang Kun-yu (江坤宇), Chen Tzu-hao (陳子豪) and Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) receiving 10-year deals ranging from NT$130 million to NT$200 million (US$3.92 million to US$6.03 million).
Business is business, and these deals demonstrate that the franchises are optimistic about the players’ prospects and the market’s future development, he said.
As the market grows, there would be no ceiling for players who want to advance in their careers, he added.
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