Crowds flock to western Seoul for Dodgers-Padres MLB season opener

The line to get into Gocheok Sky Dome extended out the complex, down the road, over the bridge and into Sindorim as of 3 p.m. on Wednesday, four hours before the Dodgers and Padres were set to face off in the official opener of the 2024 MLB season.

The line to get into Gocheok Sky Dome extended out the complex, down the road, over the bridge and into Sindorim as of 3 p.m. on Wednesday, four hours before the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres were set to face off in the official opener of the 2024 MLB season.

The Dodgers and Padres will play two games in Seoul as part of the 2024 MLB Seoul Series, marking the first MLB regular season games ever to be played on Korean soil.

The clubs arrived in Seoul last week, playing a series of exhibition games ahead of the main event. The Dodgers beat the KBO’s Kiwoom Heroes 14-3 in the opening exhibition game, with the San Diego Padres edging out the reigning KBO champion LG Twins 5-4 the following day. Both teams also played the Korean national team, the Padres winning 1-0 and the Dodgers 5-2.

But while there were some empty seats at every exhibition game, the main event looks likely to be played in front a full house — and a very excited one judging by the crowds outside hours before first pitch.

The excitement of Korean fans and the cheering culture here has been one of the standout points of the exhibition games, with the big league players and coaches commenting on how dramatically different it was to anything they had experienced back home.

In Korea, fans cheer loudly whenever their team is at bat — and generally only when their team is at bat — with specific chants for every player complete with synchronized hand movements. Every player gets loud entrance music blared throughout the park and there are cheerleaders on stage for the duration of every at-bat.

Tyler Glasnow, who is set to start for the Dodgers on Wednesday, is so taken by the culture he wants to take it back to Los Angeles with him.

"In between innings, or while the inning is going on, the songs and the sounds and stuff, it's really cool," Glasnow said on Monday. "I hope we can adopt that back home. It's great. It's been really cool."

The ballpark and the fans are not the only thing bringing a distinctly international feel to the Seoul Series. Japanese film crews are lined up outside waiting to interview any and everybody with a Japanese sign as Gocheok Sky Dome finds itself playing host to Shohei Ohtani’s first official outing in a Dodgers’ jersey.

While the world watches Ohtani, the eyes of many Korean fans will be on the other dugout, where Gold Glove-winning San Diego Padres shortstop Kim Ha-seong returns to the ballpark he called home for five years to play the same game for a different team in a different league.

Game 1 of the Seoul Series was set to start at 7:07 p.m. on Wednesday evening as of press time. Game 2 of the two-game series will start at the same time on Thursday.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]