SEVENTEEN, one of K-pop’s most successful groups, recently faced unexpected debate after images of empty seats at their fan meeting event, the 2025 “SEVENTEEN in CARAT LAND” circulated online. The event, held on March 20 and 21, meant to celebrate the bond between SEVENTEEN and their dedicated fanbase, CARATs, has now become a topic of heated discussion.
According to Pledis Entertainment, tickets for the event were sold out during the fan club pre-sale, leaving no tickets available for the general sale. However, various images emerged, showing the venue with visible empty seats, leading some netizens to speculate whether SEVENTEEN’s popularity is declining. Comments questioning their global dominance surfaced, with some wondering if the group’s ticket-selling power had weakened.
However, many fans quickly defended the group, citing sold-out concerts and massive album sales as proof that their fanbase remains strong. Additionally, the empty seats can be explained by mismanagement of tick sales. According to some netizens, many seats, which were originally sold out, suddenly became available to be purchased just a day or a couple days prior to the event, making many fans, especially international ones unable to attend due to the last-minute availability.
This is likely due to the regime of ticketing sites in Korea, where purchasers are able to cancel tickets by a certain date for a full refund, and will continue getting a percentage of the cost back after. This feature is thus exploited by ticket resellers, who would claim the tickets, making fans unable to buy, and then released these tickets after attempting to sell them up until the last minute.
The situation of SEVENTEEN’s fanmeeting thus become a hot topic, as netizens heatedly discuss the problem of ticket scalping in Korea. Below are some comments from netizens:
- Ticketing sites shows no seats available, but resellers are just holding onto the tickets, creating empty spots. Meanwhile, real fans are forced to scramble for last-minute cancellations, spending an entire month on resale, only to end up in shitting seats, whereas the amazing floor seats stay empty… Seriously, I wish all resellers would vanish.
- This ticket scalping situation is seriously messed up
- The scalpers who bought the empty seats and cancelled them last minute needs to be sued for obstruction of business
- I understand that a flexible system is needed, but in cases like this, there should be a solution to prevent scalpers or allow fans on site to fill the empty seats.
