The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) reached a milestone, as regular season attendance reached 2 million for the first time. More than 5,000 fans attended the game between the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions and the Fubon Guardians in Tainan on Friday.
Taiwan’s professional baseball league had sold 1,998,794 tickets for the regular-season games before Friday. The record was officially broken that night when 5,322 fans attended the game at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium, where the Lions won 4-3.
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 during the mid-season draft last month.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
However, the Lions secured a walk-off win in the 10th inning 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. The total and the average attendance are new records in the league’s 35-year history.
The previous total attendance record was set last year, which saw 1,800,130 spectators over 300 games. Meanwhile, 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 might partly be attributable to the opening of the Taipei Dome this year, the country’s first indoor baseball venue, with more than 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 is holding 360 regular-season games, including eight more scheduled at the Taipei Dome for next month.
The first two F-16V Bock 70 jets purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Taiwan around Double Ten National Day, which is on Oct. 10, a military source said yesterday. Of the 66 F-16V Block 70 jets purchased from the US, the first completed production in March, the source said, adding that since then three jets have been produced per month. Although there were reports of engine defects, the issue has been resolved, they said. After the jets arrive in Taiwan, they must first pass testing by the air force before they would officially become Taiwan’s property, they said. The air force
GLOBAL: Although Matsu has limited capacity for large numbers of domestic tourists, it would be a great high-end destination for international travelers, an official said Lienchiang County’s (Matsu) unique landscape and Cold War history give it great potential to be marketed as a destination for international travelers, Tourism Administration Director General Chen Yu-hsiu (陳玉秀) said at the weekend. Tourism officials traveled to the outlying island for the Matsu Biennial, an art festival that started on Friday to celebrate Matsu’s culture, history and landscape. Travelers to Matsu, which lies about 190km northwest of Taipei, must fly or take the state-run New Taima passenger ship. However, flights are often canceled during fog season from April to June. Chen spoke about her vision to promote Matsu as a tourist attraction in
PAWSITIVE IMPACT: A shop owner said that while he adopted cats to take care of rodents, they have also attracted younger visitors who also buy his dried goods In Taipei’s Dadaocheng (大稻埕), cats lounging in shops along Dihua Street do more than nap amid the scent of dried seafood. Many have become beloved fixtures who double as photography models, attracting visitors and helping boost sales in one of the capital’s most historic quarters. A recent photo contest featuring more than a dozen shop cats drew more than 2,200 submissions, turning everyday cat-spotting into a friendly competition that attracted amateur and professional photographers. “It’s rare to see cats standing, so when it suddenly did, it felt like a lucky cat,” said Sabrina Hsu (徐淳蔚), who won the NT$10,000 top prize in
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
RSS