Watching Soccer at Gudeok Stadium (구덕공설운동장) - Busan iPark

After watching some Koreanovelas you get an idea that soccer and baseball is big here. So my friend and I wanted to watch a soccer game in Korea.

It was Sunday and quickly did a search if there are any ongoing soccer games in Busan, where I'm staying.

What luck! A game was happening on the same day at 7:00 pm.

I went to Kakao Maps to see how far it was from where I'm staying and I saw it was an hour of commute with just 1 switch.. not bad!

Buying tickets and choosing seats

So I went on to search how to buy tickets. As a foreigner with only a tourist visa, sometimes it's hard to purchase anything online because you need an ARC to verify the account.

Tickets can be purchased from Busan iPark's official website. but in my case, there was plenty available on-site, so you can buy on the spot.

Prices are not bad - ₩10,000 - ₩20,000 per adult, for the best seats.

The seating plan at the Gudeok Stadium are as follows:

Here's how they look like in actual, from the Table Seats.

Finding the Stadium

It was quite easy to find, I suggest using Naver map or Kakao map to find out how to commute from where you are.

There are bus stops located near the stadium. I took the bus all the way home.

It's quite near to Gamcheon Culture Village, and Busan Station.

Is there Food?

Upon arriving, we saw a lot of people, especially those with table seats - brought in pizza and chicken.

Within the Premises

Unexpectedly, there's not much food vendors in the premise, just one coffee stall.

and a vending machine..

During the break, a store will open ~ ramyeon, popcorn, ice cream.. but options are limited:

Outside the Premises

Luckily there are restaurant options like BHC chicken nearby, and CU convenience store right across the street. The chicken takes 15 minutes to cook so good to be a bit early.

Watching the Game

The players were close enough to see, so there were no LCD screens that will show replays of the game, like what you see on TV.

I had fun identifying star players in the team, and figuring out the strategies each team is playing. When I was watching the game, Busan iPark was very good with passing the ball to each other.

The other team failed at that, which was the basics of the game, and even if they got the ball, they were not good at scoring goals either.

Some soccer basics:

• Game is divided into 30 minutes, 15 minutes then half time for 15 minutes
• There was a raffle during half time but I went out to check out the food options so I missed it.
• Game resumes for another 30 minutes and 15 minutes
• Player can get a yellow card as a warning, and a red card after that

Overall I had fun eating my chicken dinner on the table seats, and watching soccer live at the same time! The crowd was fun too!