Lotte Giants at Sajik Stadium: A Busan Baseball Guide

Lotte Giants at Sajik Stadium: A Busan Baseball Guide

Byjamesju

Last Updated on August 13, 2026

Table of Contents

Quick Answer

Yes — Busan’s KBO team is the Lotte Giants (롯데 자이언츠), playing at Sajik Baseball Stadium (사직야구장) in Dongnae-gu. Tickets aren’t sold on Ticketlink or NOL (the platform formerly branded Interpark). The club uses its own Korean-only site, and its published 2026 policy states that online booking is members-only — non-members cannot book. Same-day sales at the stadium have no membership requirement and open two hours before weekday games, three hours on weekends.

The Full Answer

If you search for how to watch baseball in Busan, most guides give you the same three facts: the team is the Lotte Giants, the stadium is Sajik, and the fans wear orange plastic bags on their heads. All of that is accurate, and none of it is what actually trips up a foreign visitor trying to go to a game this month.

Two things get missed. First, Lotte’s ticketing setup is genuinely different from the other nine KBO clubs, in a way that matters if you’re used to booking through a general ticketing app. Second, Sajik Stadium’s future — the rebuild that several English-language articles describe as a done deal — is not settled. Those two gaps are the reason this guide exists.

This guide assumes you’re planning a Busan trip and deciding whether to fit a game in, not planning a trip around baseball alone. That’s also why it leans heavily on links to Busan’s other attractions, transit, and accommodation — a night at Sajik works best as one stop in a broader itinerary, not a standalone excursion. If this would be your first KBO game anywhere, our guide to going to a KBO game covers the general basics: start times, rain refunds, and what happens at the gate.

Comparison table of two routes to buy Lotte Giants tickets: online membership requirement versus same-day stadium sales open to all, with timing and purchase limits

Photo by TurtleLover98 on Pixabay

Does Busan Have a KBO Team?

Busan’s KBO team is the Lotte Giants, one of the league’s founding franchises from the KBO’s 1982 launch. They play their home games at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Dongnae-gu, part of the wider Sajik Sports Complex.

Lotte is a company name, not a place name — the same pattern applies across the league (Samsung, Hanwha, KIA, KT, SSG are all corporate sponsors rather than cities), which is part of why visitors sometimes have trouble figuring out which team plays where. Our comparison of all ten KBO stadiums maps each team to its city and ticket vendor if you’re weighing Sajik against another ballpark. If Busan is on your itinerary and you’re trying to work out whether a KBO game fits, the short version is: yes, there’s a team, the stadium is centrally located and subway-accessible, and the harder part is the ticket, not the game itself.

Why Lotte Giants Tickets Don’t Work Like the Other Nine Clubs

Most English-language advice about buying KBO tickets tells you to use Ticketlink or an aggregator booking app. For Lotte, that advice doesn’t apply.

According to the KBO’s official club ticketing map, checked on August 11, 2026, five clubs (LG Twins, Hanwha Eagles, Samsung Lions, KT Wiz, KIA Tigers) sell through Ticketlink and two (Doosan Bears, Kiwoom Heroes) sell through NOL (nol.yanolja.com), the platform that absorbed Interpark’s ticketing business — most English guides still call it Interpark. Three run their own platforms — SSG Landers, NC Dinos, and Lotte Giants, whose tickets are sold exclusively through ticket.giantsclub.com. Our guide to buying KBO tickets as a foreigner works through the other nine clubs’ channels; this section is about Lotte’s.

I opened ticket.giantsclub.com’s login page on August 11, 2026 to see what a visitor actually gets. There is no English toggle anywhere on it — the booking interface is Korean only. The club’s English-language site exists separately, but it covers the roster and schedule, not ticketing or stadium rules.

Local tip — Most English guides tell you to check Ticketlink or a general ticketing app for KBO tickets. Lotte Giants tickets aren’t sold on either — the club is one of three that run their own platform, and as of August 11, 2026 that platform has no English interface at all. Plan on reading Korean, bringing someone who can, or buying at the stadium instead.

When tickets actually go on sale

This is the detail English guides get wrong most often, and the club publishes it plainly in Korean. The Sajik ticket information page, under 티켓구입안내, sets out the 2026 booking calendar:

  • Presale opens two weeks before the series, on Tuesday and Thursday, 14:00–18:00 — members only, up to 2 tickets per ID per game.
  • General sale opens two weeks before the series, on Wednesday and Friday, from 14:00 and stays open until one hour after first pitch — members only, up to 8 tickets per ID per game.

Two things there are easy to miss. Booking opens by series, not by individual game — Korean baseball is played in three-game sets, so one 14:00 opening covers all three. And 14:00 KST is a fixed clock time, not a midnight rollover.

Local tip — English guides variously claim Lotte tickets go on sale “a week before” or “two to three weeks before” a game. The club’s own 2026 ticket page is more specific than either: booking opens two weeks before the series at 14:00 KST, on Tuesday and Thursday for the members’ presale and Wednesday and Friday for general sale. The unit is the series, not the game.

The part that blocks most foreign visitors

The same table states, for both the presale and the general sale, 비회원 : 예매불가 — non-members cannot book. Membership is free but requires a Lotte L.POINT account created on the Korean site.

That’s a harder barrier than most English guides describe, and it’s worth being precise. The login screen at ticket.giantsclub.com still carries older text saying non-member booking is possible for up to four tickets, so the club’s two pages contradict each other. The ticket policy page is the one labelled for the 2026 season — treat online booking as members-only and don’t plan around guest checkout. Whether signup itself requires a Korean phone number wasn’t tested here, and no page states it. A June 2025 column reposted on Daum notes that Korean ticketing sites typically require a local number at signup and that overseas-issued cards usually fail — a broad statement rather than a Lotte rule, and over a year old, but consistent with what the Lotte pages imply.

Seat pricing follows a colour-coded system (Ivory+, Ivory, Weekday, Weekend, Blue, Navy, Red) where the same seat costs different amounts depending on the day and expected demand. Adult general seating runs approximately 4,000–20,400 KRW; premium seating ranges from about 5,600 KRW for an obstructed upper seat to 150,000 KRW for a weekend Avenuel ground seat (as of August 2026). Youth and child fares are listed separately and go lower. The page also lists a ticket call centre — (051) 852-1982.

Is the Sajik Stadium Rebuild Actually Happening?

This is the part of the story that’s easiest to get wrong by trusting an English source that hasn’t been updated.

Several English-language articles — a November 2024 piece on Hapskorea, coverage on Stripes Korea, and Busan City’s own English-language press release — describe a rebuilt Sajik Stadium reopening in 2031 as settled fact: construction starting in 2028, a roughly 21,000-seat open-air design, national funding secured. None of them mention what happened next, and none appear to have been updated since.

I read through the Korean coverage to check the current status, and the picture is more complicated than either “on track” or “cancelled.”

The plan first hit a wall in April 2025, when it was turned back by the central government’s local-finance investment review (중앙투자심사) — reported in Kookje Shinmun, which also noted that the city intended to resubmit the same month with the national-funding portion removed. The bigger change came in 2026. Kookje Shinmun reported on July 21, 2026 that Busan City told the city council’s administration and culture committee it would review an “adjustment” of the rebuild — timed to the new mayor’s separate pledge to build a dome arena at Busan’s North Port. Council members pushed back, noting that the 29.9 billion won in national funding had not been withdrawn and that the project had been on course for a March 2031 reopening. The city’s sports director answered that a task force was being formed, that the Sajik design competition consultancy was still running, and — in his words — that this was “not an administrative halt.”

Then in early August 2026 some outlets reported a “two-track” plan: rebuild Sajik and add a North Port dome, splitting games between them. Busan City’s response, carried on August 7, 2026, was that it is not currently reviewing the operational arrangements described, that the dome arena’s function has not been fixed to any particular model, and that it will consolidate and announce its position by the end of 2026.

Timeline showing Sajik Stadium rebuild plan progression: October 2024 agreement, April 2025 rejection, July 2026 adjustment review, and August 2026 decision promised by year-end 2026

Local tip — English-language coverage of the Sajik rebuild still describes a 2031 reopening as confirmed, and none of it has been updated since 2024. Korean coverage tells a different story: the plan was turned back by the central investment review in April 2025, Busan City opened an “adjustment review” of it in July 2026, and in August 2026 the city said it would announce its position only at the end of the year. The city also stated the project has not been administratively halted and that design work continues.

This isn’t a case of “the rebuild fell through” — that would overstate what’s known, and the city has said the opposite on the record. It also isn’t the settled 2031 timeline the English sources describe. The honest summary is that the project is under review with a decision promised for late 2026. What this means practically: the Sajik Stadium you’d visit today is the same stadium that’s stood for years, and none of this changes anything about attending a game in the near term. It matters mainly if you’re reading older English coverage and assuming the stadium’s future is more settled than it is.

Getting to Sajik Stadium by Subway

Sajik Baseball Stadium sits on Busan Metro Line 3, with two stations nearby: Sajik Station and Jonghap Undongjang (Sports Complex) Station. Korean-language sources — including a reference entry last edited August 4, 2026 — consistently describe Sajik Station as the closer option, roughly a five-minute walk. That’s noticeably shorter than the ten-minute walk some English guides cite, though the exact exit number wasn’t consistently confirmed across sources, so it’s worth checking a map app once you’re at street level rather than relying on a specific exit number.

If you’re coming from KTX Busan Station, the typical route is Line 1 to Dongnae Station, then transferring to Line 3 toward Sajik — a trip of roughly 40 minutes door to door, though this wasn’t independently cross-checked beyond a single source and can vary with transfer timing.

What You Can Bring Into the Stadium

The short version for Sajik: plan around the league-wide baseline, and check the club’s own page before you go. Per the KBO’s official SAFE stadium policy, each spectator may bring one bag up to 45×45×20cm plus one shopping-style bag up to 30×50×12cm; coolers, mats, folding chairs and portable tables are not permitted. Glass is banned outright, and unopened drinks are limited to one PET bottle and two cans per person. Alcohol bought inside is capped at 2 litres per person per game, and the KBO says sales may be cut off after the bottom of the 8th inning.

One thing worth knowing before you pack, which I checked on the KBO’s Korean-language policy page on August 11, 2026: the KBO states that club-by-club exceptions to these rules exist and asks fans to check the individual club’s website before visiting. This research did not find Sajik-specific rules layered on top of the baseline, but “not found” is not the same as “none,” and the league itself is telling you to check. Our guide to KBO stadium rules, bags, and food covers the venue-by-venue comparison in more depth — this article sticks to the Sajik-relevant summary.

Buying at the Stadium on Game Day

If online booking is closed to you, this is the section that matters — and the answer is better than most English guides suggest. The club’s same-day sales carry no membership requirement at all. The same ticket information page sets out how they run:

  • Sales open two hours before first pitch on weekdays (Mon–Thu), and three hours before on weekends and public holidays (Fri–Sun).
  • Kiosks sell up to 4 tickets per person; staffed box office windows sell up to 8. Groups of nine or more have to split the purchase.
  • Weekday selling points are the kiosks on level 1 and at the 1st- and 3rd-base gates, plus box offices at 1st and 3rd base. On weekends the outfield kiosk and box office also open.

The club notes in the same section that same-day sales run mostly through unstaffed kiosks and can get congested on the day, and that the walk-up policy may change. Treat the timings as the current published rule rather than a permanent one.

Local tip — Lotte’s online booking is members-only, but its same-day sales are not — anyone can buy at the stadium. The published window is two hours before first pitch on weekdays and three hours before on weekends and holidays, at kiosks (4 tickets per person) or staffed windows (8 per person). For a visitor without a Korean account, the box office is the route that actually works, not a last resort.

The senior and accessibility window is not a foreigner window

The June 2025 column cited above reported that Doosan Bears had introduced a same-day allocation at Jamsil of roughly 200 seats for people who struggle with online booking, and that Japanese fans welcomed it because Doosan’s version also included foreign visitors. The same column noted that Lotte and KT already ran comparable schemes for seniors and people with disabilities.

The club’s own page confirms Lotte’s version and its scope. On weekends and holidays the second-floor 3rd-base window operates as a dedicated counter for digitally underserved and disabled visitors — verified on site, age 65 and over or disability status, two tickets per person. Once that allocation sells out, the window reverts to general sales. There is no foreign-visitor category anywhere on the page.

Local tip — English write-ups of KBO “same-day tickets for foreign fans” are describing Doosan’s programme at Jamsil in Seoul. Lotte runs a dedicated same-day counter at Sajik too, but its published eligibility is age 65-plus or disability, verified in person, two tickets each — foreign visitors are not a listed category. You don’t need it: Lotte’s general same-day sales are open to everyone.

Paid tour packages are the remaining option. Third-party platforms sell Sajik game packages, including one bundled with a pre-game meal advertised at roughly $78 for about four hours (as listed in August 2026) — well above the 4,000–20,400 KRW face value of an adult general seat. Given that walk-up sales are open to everyone, that premium buys convenience and a guaranteed seat rather than access you couldn’t otherwise get.

If you’re weighing whether a Korean number would help, our Korea eSIM and mobile guide covers how local numbers work for visitors — though whether an eSIM-issued number satisfies Lotte’s membership signup wasn’t tested here, and the club doesn’t publish that requirement either way.

Fitting a Game Into a Busan Itinerary

For most visitors, baseball in Busan is an add-on to an existing trip rather than a reason to book one. That’s the practical frame for this section: where a Sajik game fits around the rest of a Busan visit.

Sajik sits inland from the coast, on the Line 3 subway corridor rather than near the beach areas most visitors base themselves around. If you’re staying near Busan’s beaches — Haeundae or Gwangalli — factor in the subway transfer time to Sajik rather than assuming it’s a short walk from anywhere central. Visitors weighing where to stay for a trip that includes a game should check our Busan accommodation guide for how access to Line 3 factors into location choice.

A game can reasonably anchor an evening around Busan’s broader sightseeing — our Busan markets guide covers daytime plans that leave the evening open for first pitch. If you’re arriving from Seoul or another city, the KTX booking guide covers reserving the train down; if Japan is also on your route, the Busan–Fukuoka ferry guide is relevant for combining a game with a cross-border leg.

On payment: if a same-day box office attempt is part of your plan, carry cash. Overseas-issued cards are the weak link in Korean ticketing generally, and our cash vs. card guide and Korean ATM guide for foreigners cover which machines accept foreign cards — a failed card at the gate is a worse problem on game night than at a convenience store.

One more scheduling note: the 2026 KBO season has been unusually disrupted by an extended heat-related suspension. League play was halted through the first ten days of August and resumed on August 11, 2026, and a Lotte home game at Sajik was among those cancelled outright. If you’re planning around a specific date, checking the club’s current schedule shortly before your trip is worth the extra step this year specifically.

What You Need to Know

  • Online booking is members-only. Lotte’s published 2026 ticket policy states plainly that non-members cannot book, for both the presale and the general sale. Membership is free but is created on the Korean-language site.
  • Booking opens two weeks before the series at 14:00 KST — Tuesday and Thursday for the members’ presale, Wednesday and Friday for general sale. The unit is the three-game series, not the individual game.
  • Same-day sales have no membership requirement, and open two hours before first pitch on weekdays and three hours before on weekends and holidays. This is the practical route for most foreign visitors, not a fallback.
  • The dedicated same-day counter is for seniors and disabled visitors, not foreigners. Eligibility is age 65-plus or disability, verified in person, two tickets per person. Doosan’s Jamsil scheme includes foreign visitors; Lotte’s published rules do not.
  • The stadium’s future is under review, not resolved. Neither “the rebuild is happening on schedule” nor “the rebuild is cancelled” is accurate as of August 2026. Busan City opened an adjustment review in July 2026, says the project has not been halted, and has promised a position by the end of the year.
  • 2026 has an unusual schedule. An extended heat-related suspension halted league play into August, with play resuming on August 11, 2026; confirm the current schedule close to your travel dates.
  • Bag rules can vary by club. The KBO’s league-wide baseline applies at Sajik, but the KBO’s own page says club-level exceptions exist and asks fans to check the club site before visiting.

Practical Tips

  1. Go directly to ticket.giantsclub.com rather than searching Ticketlink or NOL (formerly Interpark). Lotte tickets aren’t sold on either, and time spent searching those platforms for Sajik games won’t turn up results.
  2. If you don’t have a Lotte membership account, plan to buy at the stadium. Online booking is members-only by published policy, but same-day sales are open to anyone — arrive two hours before a weekday game or three hours before a weekend game.
  3. Take Line 3 to Sajik Station rather than Jonghap Undongjang Station for the shorter walk, and confirm the exit with a map app on arrival rather than a specific exit number from any single guide.
  4. Pack light, and check the club page. The league bag-size limits (45×45×20cm plus a small shopping bag) rule out backpacks sized for a full day of sightseeing, and the KBO says individual clubs may apply their own exceptions on top.
  5. Don’t build travel plans around the stadium’s rebuild timeline. Whatever you read about 2028 construction or a 2031 reopening, treat it as unconfirmed rather than a fixed date affecting your visit.
  6. Use a staffed window rather than a kiosk if you want more than four tickets — kiosks cap at 4 per person, staffed box offices at 8, and the kiosks are where same-day congestion builds.
  7. Check the current 2026 schedule shortly before traveling, and combine the game with a broader Busan evening. The heat-related suspension this season has shifted dates more than usual, and a late-afternoon market visit or beach stop followed by first pitch works better logistically than treating Sajik as a full-day destination on its own.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Busan have a KBO team?
Yes. The Lotte Giants are Busan’s KBO franchise, one of the league’s founding clubs from 1982, playing home games at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Dongnae-gu.

Can I buy Lotte Giants tickets on Ticketlink or Interpark?
No. Lotte is one of three KBO clubs (with SSG and NC) that sell exclusively through their own platform. Lotte’s is ticket.giantsclub.com, which had no English interface when checked directly on August 11, 2026, and its published 2026 policy limits online booking to members.

When do Lotte Giants tickets go on sale?
Two weeks before each three-game series, at 14:00 KST. The members’ presale opens on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 14:00 to 18:00 with a limit of two tickets per ID per game; general sale opens Wednesdays and Fridays from 14:00 and runs until one hour after first pitch, with a limit of eight. Both are members-only. English guides that say “about a week before” or “two to three weeks before” are approximating a rule the club publishes precisely.

Is Sajik Stadium being torn down or rebuilt?
It’s under review. A 2031 reopening was announced in November 2024, but the plan was turned back by the central government’s investment review in April 2025, and in July 2026 Busan City told the city council it would review an adjustment to the project. The city says it has not halted the project and that design work continues, and has promised to announce its position by the end of 2026 — so neither “confirmed” nor “cancelled” is accurate.

How do I get to Sajik Stadium by subway?
Take Busan Metro Line 3 to Sajik Station, roughly a five-minute walk according to Korean-language sources, or to Jonghap Undongjang (Sports Complex) Station as a slightly farther alternative.

Can I buy Lotte Giants tickets at the stadium on game day?
Yes, and there’s no membership requirement for it. The club’s ticket page states that same-day sales open two hours before first pitch on weekdays and three hours before on weekends and public holidays, at kiosks (up to 4 tickets per person) and staffed box offices (up to 8). Lotte also runs a dedicated weekend counter, but its stated eligibility is age 65 and over or disability status, verified in person — unlike Doosan’s equivalent at Jamsil, it lists no foreign-visitor category. You don’t need it: general same-day sales are open to everyone. The club warns that kiosk queues can build on busy days, and notes the walk-up policy may change.

Does the bag policy at Sajik differ from other KBO stadiums?
Sajik follows the league-wide KBO SAFE baseline — bag size limits, restrictions on outside drinks, and alcohol purchase limits — and this research found no Sajik-specific rules on top of it. The KBO’s own policy page does note that club-level exceptions exist and asks fans to check the individual club’s site before visiting.

Do I need a Korean phone number to watch a Lotte Giants game?
Not to attend. Same-day sales at the stadium have no account or phone requirement. Online booking does require a Lotte membership account, and Korean ticketing sites generally require a local number at signup and often reject overseas-issued cards, according to a June 2025 column on the subject — but Lotte doesn’t publish its own signup requirements, and this research did not test whether a Korea-issued eSIM number works.



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