Shohei Ohtani Dodgers Debut: Seoul Series tickets sell out within minutes as fans eagerly await Japanese phenom's return

Shohei Ohtani is expected to make his LA Dodgers debut against the San Diego Padres in South Korea in a regular-season series on March 20 and 21, 2024.

Three Japanese stars (Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Yu Darvish) will be taking the field in Seoul. Fans are excited to watch their favorite stars in action. Ha-Seong Kim, a utility player for the Padres, will be the only South Korean national on both rosters.

The opening game of the Seoul Series, on March 20 and 21, will be Shohei Ohtani's debut as a Dodger after signing a record-breaking 10-year, $700 million contract this offseason; accordingly, competition for seats is expected to be intense. At 8:05 p.m. EST on January 26, approximately 30,000 people were on the waiting list for the first of two games of the Seoul Series.

In the next fifteen minutes, that number increased to 40,000 spectators. The company that sells the tickets and streams the games, Coupang Play, stated that it was unable to verify the number of users who accessed the ticketing website as soon as the tickets went live on the website.

An MLB regular-season game will be played in South Korea for the first time in the history of the major league. Fans attempting to get tickets through the Coupang Play app and website will have a difficult time because the Gocheok Sky Dome, the venue for the games, can only hold roughly one-third of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

JTB Corp. stated in a statement that it will provide more information on the Seoul Series packages this month. The requirement for a Korean phone number and government-issued identification card for sales on Coupang Play's platforms has raised concerns that fans outside of Korea may find it nearly impossible to purchase tickets for the games.

However, Shohei Ohtani's loyal fanbase is eager to see their Sanurai take to the field for the first time with the mighty Dodgers this season.

MLB is planning to diversify its International venues for regular-season games starting in 2025

Major League Baseball plans to significantly increase its overseas schedule in 2025, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Japan, Australia, and Mexico have already hosted regular-season games in the past. Because of this initiative, baseball has developed a huge international market.

This is a component of baseball's ongoing strategy to broaden the game's audience worldwide. Even though these games may affect the traveling teams, they are usually beneficial to the sport. In principle, they let teams invest more in players and expand the sport's audience by bringing in more money.