'Fire Baseball' is starting its first live game.
At 2 PM on the 27th, Dongguk University will face off against the Fire Fighters at Gocheok Sky Dome in Guro-gu, Seoul.
When tickets for the live game opened on the 22nd, about 110,000 people flocked to purchase them, and all seats were sold out within 5 minutes. The seating was categorized by price, ranging from 100,000 won for Studio C1 club seats to 18,000 won for designated seats in the outfield, with 15 skyboxes sold for a maximum price of 2 million won.
The Fire Fighters consist of players who have participated in the JTBC entertainment program 'Strong Baseball' series. Notable names such as Director Kim Seong-geun, Park Yong-taek, Song Seung-jun, Lee Taek-geun, Jung Seong-hoon, Nippert, Jung Geun-woo, Lee Dae-ho, Kim Jae-ho, Jeong Ui-yoon, Yoo Hee-kwan, Kim Moon-ho, Lee Dae-eun, Shin Jae-young, Park Jae-wook, Choi Soo-hyun, Sun Seong-gwon, Kim Kyung-mook, Kang Dong-woo, Park Jun-young, Park Chan-hyung, Lim Sang-woo, and Moon Kyo-won have been revealed, raising fans' expectations.
'Strong Baseball' is an entertainment program featuring retired professional baseball legends competing against baseball teams nationwide. 'Fire Baseball' seems to have simply changed its name from 'Strong Baseball', with the same production team and cast. The reason for abandoning the brand image built under 'Strong Baseball' and creating the program under a new name is unclear.
'Strong Baseball' was produced by Studio C1, led by PD Jang Si-won, from Season 1 to Season 3 in 2022. However, conflicts began when JTBC raised suspicions of duplicate and excessive billing regarding Studio C1's production costs.
JTBC has stated that it is preparing to present a new season of 'Strong Baseball' with a new production team as soon as possible. They claimed, "C1 has overbilled production costs by several hundred million to several billion won," and asserted that "proceeding with Season 4 infringes on the IP rights of Strong Baseball."
C1 responded, stating, "There can be no excessive billing as the post-billing and actual cost settlement conditions do not apply. JTBC's copyright is limited to the footage from Season 3," pointing out that it is a case of intellectual property theft.
JTBC is currently in a legal dispute with C1. Upon the news of 'Fire Baseball's production, JTBC stated, "We requested a halt to the production and are currently in the process of a lawsuit," emphasizing that "if production continues, we will consider filing for an injunction. Even if they proceed with filming and production under a different name, there are concerns about copyright infringement as the cast continues the narrative of 'Strong Baseball'."
[Kim So-yeon, Star Today Reporter]
