Despite their best efforts, Persija Jakarta were again forced to play “home” fixtures away from the capital — their October 31 match with PSBS Biak and the November 20 tie with Persik Kediri were staged at Manahan Stadium in Solo — victims of a recurring problem for the Macan Kemayoran: Jakarta’s biggest arenas being blocked out for K-pop events.
Indonesia’s K-pop scene is massive — its roots run back to the late 2000s and today it is dominated by global acts such as BTS, BLACKPINK, NCT and their various units. When those acts book Jakarta, promoters often favor the largest venues — Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) and Jakarta International Stadium (JIS) — because of their capacity and infrastructure. That’s good business for concert promoters and stadium operators, but it frequently comes at the direct expense of Persija.
The conflict is not only about dates. Stadiums are routinely closed not just for stage build-ups and rehearsals but also for intensive maintenance afterwards. Big concerts can damage playing surfaces and require lengthy turf repairs — an issue Persija captain Rizky Ridho and club staff have publicly complained about after K-pop shows left JIS’s pitch in poor condition. That degradation forces longer closures and pushes Persija to scramble for alternatives.
The results are predictable: matches reshuffled, venues switched, supporters inconvenienced and, sometimes, fixtures moved out of the city entirely. Persija has tried to use alternative Jakarta venues, but policing, scheduling and pitch-quality constraints often make those options unworkable, leaving Manahan (or other neutral venues) as the only practical choice.
Tensions have spilled over online. When high-profile fixtures were postponed or relocated because of K-pop shows, angry threads and hashtag storms erupted on social media — Persija fans accused stadium operators and concertgoers of prioritizing pop spectacles over football, while K-pop followers hit back, accusing supporters of targeting artists and their fandoms unfairly. Major episodes of online friction were recorded in 2023 around a BLACKPINK concert at GBK, with rival camps trading insults and Persija’s official accounts receiving waves of hostile comments.
The clashes are rarely physical, but they are visible and bitter: Instagram and Twitter threads showing Persija supporters calling out concert organizers, and K-pop fans responding en masse to protect their idols — a cycle of online escalation that reflects deeper frustrations about who gets priority access to Jakarta’s scarce large venues. Media outlets and opinion pieces since 2023 have documented the recurring pattern and urged better coordination between authorities, stadium managers, Football Federation of Indonesia (PSSI), league organizers the I League, and event promoters.
Why does this keep happening? Two forces collide: commercial logic and sporting needs. Stadium operators earn far more from international concerts than a single domestic league match; promoters require long blocks of time to build and dismantle stages; and event organizers often secure bookings months — sometimes years — in advance. Meanwhile, football calendars are compressed and inflexible, and policing requirements for big matches can block alternative dates. The upshot is a perennial scheduling squeeze that consistently disadvantages football clubs — especially Persija, which calls the same big venues home.
If Jakarta’s packed events calendar is to work for everyone, stakeholders must get smarter. Better long-term scheduling, clearer maintenance protocols after concerts, ring-fenced windows for domestic football, and compensation mechanisms for clubs affected by pitch damage would help. Without those changes, fans will keep losing home games to stages — and social-media rows will remain the least of the fallout.