V-League teams mark halfway in season

Korea’s pro volleyball league’s All-Star Team players dance during the Korean Volleyball Federation’s (KOVO) 2014-15 All-Star Game, which was held at the Jangchung Gymnasium in Seoul on Sunday. / Yonhap

By Baek Byung-yeul

Teams in the V-League, Korea’s professional volleyball league, have passed the halfway point, completing the fourth of a total of six rounds in the 2014-15 season last week.

Midway through the season, the Daejeon Samsung Fire Bluefangs, which have shown absolute authority in the men’s league, sweeping eight championship titles in the league’s 11-year history, are dominating the V-League standings with 19 wins in 24 matches.

In the women’s league, the Seongnam Korea Express Corporation Hi-Pass have paved the way for their first-ever championship title, leading the standings with 14 wins and 6 losses. The team, which placed fourth last season, performed tremendously in the fourth round, winning eight straight games.

First launched in 2005, Korea’s pro volleyball league has seven teams in the men’s league and six teams in the women’s. Comprised of six rounds, the men’s teams play six games a round while the women’s team has five.

Wrapping up the first half, both men and women’s teams held All-Star Games, Sunday, at the newly-opened Jangchung Gymnasium in Seoul. The 52-year-old gym, the home ground for the GS Caltex Seoul KIXX, a women’s volleyball team, was the country’s first indoor gymnasium. After going through a two-year-eight-month renovation, it opened again Jan. 17.

Bluefangs aim to capture 9th title

In the history of the V-League, only two teams have won the championship title -- the Bluefangs with eight and the Cheonan Hyundai Capital Skywalkers with two.

Headed by manager Shin Chi-yong, the Bluefangs took five wins in six matches in the fourth round. The team’s main attacker Leonardo Leyva Martinez scored 216 points in the fourth round alone. Martinez, better known as Leo to Korean fans, is the league’s top scorer with 923 points.

While the Bluefangs have continued to be on the ascendancy, Ansan OK Savings Bank Rush & Cash is ranked second, against all odds thanks to the stunning performance of Cuban spiker Robertlandy Simon. Simon is the second-highest scorer with 776 points in the league.

The Skywalkers, who lost to the Bluefangs in the championship final last season, seems unlikely to advance into the playoffs as the team is currently placed fifth. The men’s V-League has “a four-team playoff” to determine the champion.

Popularity of V-League soars

Though the V-League has been regarded as the second most popular indoor sport here, following the Korea Basketball League (KBL), recent numbers show that it is taking numbers away from the No. 1.

According to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, men’s basketball league drew about 1.2 million spectators in 2013 while the total attending both men and women’s volleyball league games was only at around 380,000. However, things appear to be different when it comes to TV ratings.

In the last season, the average rating of the V-League was around 0.8 percent while the KBL’s average was around 0.3 percent.

Last month the Korean Volleyball Federation (KOVO), the governing body of the V-League, announced that the match between the Gumi LIG Insurance Greaters and the Skywalkers recorded 1.94 percent, which was the highest this season.

Experts said the increased popularity of pro volleyball mainly came from KOVO’s marketing strategy. Last year, the Skywalkers won grand award at the inaugural Sports Marketing Awards, beating every sport club in the country’s professional sports leagues. Established by the ministry, the team won the award for their fan-friendly marketing and various kinds of community services.

KOVO said that they are aiming to draw more than half a million spectators this season. Last year, about 410,000 volleyball fans visited gyms.