"Late to be late for the referee assignment" The first-ever delay in the game... a 'full refund' measure for admission tickets

*This content was translated by AI.

Ahead of the start of the professional basketball game, the referee did not arrive, leading to an absurd skit in which the game was delayed. Home club Cheongju KB Stars has issued a full refund of tickets for fans.

The Korean Women's Basketball Federation (WKBL) urgently announced on the 16th, "The start time of the match between Hana Bank's 2025-2026 women's professional basketball KB Stars and Shinhan Bank at Cheongju Gymnasium has been changed from 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. due to the delay in the arrival of the judges."

The federation then added, "We deeply apologize to the fans, the athletes of both teams, and the officials for the inconvenience caused by the unexpected schedule change."

The situation stems from the problem of the federation's administrative system. The delay in notification of the allocation of referees led to a situation in which referees could not arrive at the stadium on time.

In a phone call with Star News, a WKBL official said, "In order to prevent unpleasant things regarding the referee assignment, we usually notify the referee of the assignment on the day of the game," but added, "Today, the delivery timing was delayed until the time when the referees arrived at the scene was delayed." The departure was delayed due to the late allocation, and as a result, I was late," he said.

"There is no clear regulation on the deadline for the allocation of trials," he said, adding, "This is a bad case caused by a loophole in the allocation system. Internally, it seems necessary to reorganize the allocation system," he said.

The home team KB Stars, which suffered a sudden damage, moved quickly. Although it is not attributable to the club, a compensation plan has been made for fans who visited the stadium.

KB Stars announced on its official social network service (SNS), "We will fully refund all tickets to all spectators who visit the stadium or outside the club's home game operation," adding, "Today's game will be converted to free admission."

The club then said, "We sincerely apologize to the fans, and we will further announce the exact details and refund procedures. We will cooperate with the federation to quickly operate the game and prevent a recurrence," he said.

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*This content was translated by AI.