KBO Games Cancelled by Heat — Back On From August 11
✅ UPDATE — 11 August 2026: baseball is back
The KBO restarts tonight. All five fixtures go ahead at 7:00 p.m.: Hanwha–Doosan (Jamsil), KT–NC (Changwon), LG–Kiwoom (Gocheok), Lotte–SSG, and Samsung–KIA (Gwangju).
The heat alerts that stopped play have eased — as of this morning there is no severe heat warning anywhere in the country. Seoul and Incheon are on the lower “heat advisory” tier; Gwangju and Changwon have nothing at all.
The thing to write down: every game now starts at 7 p.m. through September 6. Details below.
If a KBO game was on your Seoul itinerary, the six-day shutdown is over — but the league is running under new heat rules, and the start time you remember is wrong. Here’s what changed, and how to check before you travel to a stadium.
It’s a real loss — a packed KBO night game, with the chants, the beer, and the city skyline glowing behind the stands, is one of the best cheap nights out in Seoul. Which is exactly why the league pulling the plug mid-season says everything about how serious this heat wave is.
What happened
Korea is in the middle of its worst heat wave on record — the national all-time high was broken three times in a single week, peaking at 42.5°C. At a night game in Incheon on August 5, a 25-year-old spectator went into cardiac arrest and had to be revived with CPR and a defibrillator, and around 25 fans at the same game were treated for heat-related illness.
The KBO called an emergency meeting with all ten clubs and the players’ association the next day and cancelled every first- and second-division game — an unprecedented move in the league’s history (Chosun Ilbo report). Play was suspended from 5 to 9 August, and resumes on 11 August.
What’s different now
At that emergency meeting the league didn’t just set a restart date — it rewrote how summer baseball runs. Three things matter if you’re planning to go:
1. Every game starts at 7 p.m., through 6 September. That’s the change most likely to catch you out, because afternoon fixtures are simply gone for the rest of the summer. The one exception is Gocheok, the indoor stadium: 7 p.m. on weekdays, 6 p.m. on Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays.
2. There are now explicit rules for calling a game off.
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Severe heat warning in force before 1 p.m. on match day | Game cancelled |
| Severe heat warning issued after 1 p.m. | Cancelled immediately on issue |
| Warning issued after gates open or play starts | Judged on the spot — crowd movement, real-feel temperature, player and spectator condition |
| Heat advisory or heat warning (the lower tiers) | Officials measure the stadium’s real-feel temperature from 1 p.m. onward. If it hits or is forecast to hit 35°C at first pitch, the game can be called |
| Borderline cases | Start can be delayed to 7:30 p.m. rather than cancelled |
3. Cooling breaks are now built into the game. The turnaround after the 3rd and 7th innings is extended to four minutes as a fixed cooling break, the clean-up time after the 5th can stretch to six minutes, and extra innings get another four-minute break after the 9th. Games will run slightly longer than you’re used to — plan the last train accordingly.
So the practical read: a game is much less likely to be cancelled outright now, and much more likely to start late. Check before you leave, not before you book.
If you had tickets for the cancelled week
Those five days of fixtures (5–9 August) still need sorting out:
- Cancelled games are refunded automatically through the platform you booked on (Ticketlink, Interpark, or a team’s own app) — you don’t need to do anything, but the refund can take a few days to appear on a foreign card.
- Don’t rely on the ticket date. Postponed games will be rescheduled, but your original ticket usually isn’t valid for the make-up date — you rebook when new tickets open.
- If you bought through a reseller or a tour package, contact the seller directly; the automatic refund only covers official channels. If the Korean-only refund page defeats you, this is exactly the kind of thing our Anything Else concierge service handles.
How to check the schedule in English
The KBO’s official site is Korean-only, so use one of these:
- MyKBO or the “KBO” section of major sports apps — English schedules and live cancellation updates.
- Your team’s official app (Doosan Bears, LG Twins, SSG Landers, etc.) — push alerts go out when a game is called off, sometimes only in Korean, but the ❌ icon on the schedule is universal.
- 1330 Korea Travel Helpline — free, 24/7, English-speaking. They can check today’s status for you if the apps are confusing.
Same-day heat cancellations have been announced as late as a couple of hours before first pitch, so check again before you leave — especially for weekend day games.
Before you set off tonight
Two minutes of checking saves a wasted trip across the city:
- Confirm the start time — 7 p.m. now, not the time printed on an older schedule.
- Check the weather alert tier for that city, not for Seoul. Gwangju and Changwon can be clear while Seoul is under an advisory.
- Check again around 5 p.m. — under the new rules a game can be delayed to 7:30 p.m. or called off in the afternoon.
The transport side of the trip is worth a thought too: with a 7 p.m. start and longer cooling breaks, you’ll finish later than you expect, and the subway stops around midnight.
Stay safe out there
This heat is not normal even for a Korean summer, and it has already killed at least 19 people this season. Outdoor sightseeing follows the same logic as the ballpark: do it before 11 a.m. or after sunset, carry water, and duck into a subway station, convenience store, or bank lobby when you feel dizzy — all are air-conditioned and nobody will mind. Call 119 if you or someone near you shows signs of heat stroke (confusion, no sweating, fainting).
One more heat casualty nobody warns you about: keypad door lock batteries drain faster in extreme temperatures. If yours dies and locks you out, here’s how to get back in.
Get it sorted
Stuck figuring out a refund, a rescheduled game, or anything else that’s suddenly in Korean? Message us on WhatsApp — we’ll sort it out in English. Asking costs nothing — you pay only for the work you book.