Chung Tae-young, Vice Chairman of Hyundai Card, expressed regret for not being able to host Taylor Swift’s concert in South Korea. He highlighted the lack of large venues as a major challenge, despite successfully organizing the ‘Super Concert Series’ with other global stars in the past.
Vice Chairman Chung posted a video of Taylor Swift’s ‘The Eras Tour’ performance at the Tokyo Dome on his social media on Feb. 13. He remarked, “We should have secured a booking and heard ‘Hello, Seoul’ from Taylor herself, but unfortunately, it didn’t happen.”
Previously, Chung and Hyundai Card had successfully hosted concerts in South Korea with mega pop stars such as Coldplay, Paul McCartney, Beyoncé, Queen, Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, and Bruno Mars.
Chung expressed his disappointment regarding the absence of large concert venues in S. Korea. Chung explained that while other governments and institutions worldwide made efforts to host Taylor Swift’s concerts, he couldn’t even propose due to the lack of suitable concert venues.
Chung also shared photos of his visit to various parts of the Tokyo Dome where Taylor Swift’s concerts had generated significant economic impact in each city. In fact, the term ‘Swiftomics’ was coined to describe this phenomenon.
Chung also commented on the unique aspects of Swift’s concert, noting that each song had a different stage setting, and many people were busy bustling around. He further mentioned that it was the first time he had seen a stage with two bands placed on either side to create a mirror image effect.
Meanwhile, Swift has been on ‘The Eras Tour’ since last year. With just 60 shows in North and South America, she has set a record for the highest-grossing concert tour in world pop music history, earning $1 billion.
Recently, she performed four shows in Tokyo from the 7th to the 10th of this month. She also has three upcoming shows in Singapore next month. However, S. Korea was not included as one of the concert venues. There is speculation that the lack of large concert venues in the nation may have influenced this decision.
The shortage of large concert venues in S. Korea may hinder the attraction of future superstar performances.
Hyundai Card organized a total of 27 ‘Super Concerts’ until last year, featuring famous artists such as Paul McCartney, Coldplay, and Bruno Mars. These concerts were held at the Olympic Stadium, which can seat up to 50,000 people. However, the stadium is currently undergoing renovations that are expected to continue until 2026. This means that hosting large concerts in South Korea might be challenging for some time.
The Gocheok Sky Dome has the biggest potential for hosting concerts, but it can accommodate only 30,000 people. On the other hand, the Seoul World Cup Stadium can seat up to 50,000 people, but it is often difficult to rent out due to the maintenance of the grass for soccer games.
