5,000 tickets were canceled when it was announced that the group BTS will not join the opening ceremony at the 100th National Games which will be held at the Jamsil Sports Complex in Seoul next month. About one-third of the total tickets of 15,000 was canceled.
According to the Seoul Metropolitan City office, 10,000 tickets were sold out in 50 minutes at the first sales on August 29th and 5000 tickets were sold out in 25 minutes at the second reservation on September 5th. More than 12,000 people were on the waiting list when the second round of ticket sales was open, displaying an arena of competition to secure the ticket.
Seoul City has been actively promoting the opening ceremony with BTS, the honorary ambassador of Seoul, to promote the national competition. Park Won-soon, the mayor of Seoul, made an effort to host the event with BTS. However, their participation was canceled due to overseas performance schedule.
The 'BTS effect' at the first and second round bookings became evident when the third round of booking after their cancelation was open. The remaining 12,000 seat tickets (including 5,000 cancellations for the 1st and 2nd bookings) were distributed, but 5,000 seats were not sold out.
It is unclear if even those 8,000 seats that were not canceled will be properly filled during the event. These seats are reserved seats and must be left vacant even if a ticket holder who has not canceled is absent from the opening ceremony.
A city official said, "There were nearly 20,000 reserved seats in the 25,000 seats, except for the guest seats." "Although BTS will not participate, other K-pop singers such as X1 and Mamamu will join. The event will be conducted with a variety of programs and show, which will draw many people."
Seoul City will distribute the remaining tickets through its 4th reservation from 8 pm on September 26th to October 2nd.
