CPBL: Thirty-Seven Years, A League That Nearly Died Twice and Survived

30-Second Overview: The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) was established on October 23, 1989, and began play on March 17, 1990, with the Uni-President Lions defeating the Brother Elephants 4:3 in the opening game. Following the outbreak of the Black Elephants scandal in 1996, the Times Eagles, Sanwa Tigers, and Wei Chuan Dragons exited the league one after another. After the Black Rice scandal in 2008 led to the dissolution of the CTBC Whales, another game-fixing scandal involving the Elephants broke out in 2009. Both instances saw the league shrink back to just four teams. In 2019, the Wei Chuan Dragons returned, followed by the joining of the TSG Hawks in 2022. Since 2024, the Taipei Dome has seen single-game attendance reach 40,000, and in 2025, the average regular-season attendance surpassed 10,000 for the first time.

March 17, 1990: The First Pitch

The Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) did not appear out of nowhere.

On December 31, 1987, the "Republic of China Professional Baseball Promotion Committee" was established. Facilitated by Hung Teng-sheng, Chairman of the Brother Hotel, the committee appointed Tang Pan-pan, Chairman of the Baseball Association, as the convener and director, while Hung Teng-sheng concurrently served as the executive secretary. On January 18, 1988, the committee announced its goal to establish a professional league by 1990, consisting of at least four teams. ¹

On October 23, 1989, the inaugural meeting of the "Chinese Professional Baseball League" was held at the Brother Hotel. The first group of enterprises to commit to managing professional baseball teams were Wei Chuan, Uni-President, S商 (S商), and Brother. ¹

On March 17, 1990, the first year of professional baseball began. In the opening game, the Uni-President Lions faced off against the Brother Elephants; Sadaharu Oh attended to swing at a symbolic first pitch, and Yu Hung-kai, a former member of the Hongye Little League team, was invited to participate in the opening ceremony. The game was broadcast live by TTV, and Japan's NHK also provided satellite coverage for the two games on the first day. Uni-President won 4:3, and Wang Chun-liang hit the first home run in CPBL history in the fourth inning. In another game that same day, the S商 Tigers shut out the Wei Chuan Dragons 3:0. ¹²

After that day, "Year One of Professional Baseball" became a periodization term in Taiwan's baseball history.

The Golden Age: Seven Teams and Ten Million Spectators

From Year One to Year Eight, professional baseball saw a simultaneous rise in spectatorship, player compensation, and social status. By 1997 (the 8th year of the CPBL), cumulative attendance since Year One surpassed ten million people, accompanied by the renovation of old stadiums and the successive construction of new ones. ¹

The number of teams also increased. In addition to the original four teams, China Times, Chun-Guo Construction, Sinon Group, and Hoshun Group joined one after another, reaching a maximum scale of seven teams in a single season by 1997. Including the four teams from the neighboring Taiwan Major League, the total number of professional baseball teams in Taiwan once reached eleven. ¹³

However, this period also planted two seeds of trouble: Sheng Bao's repeated failed attempts to join the league, and disputes over television broadcasting rights, which led Sheng Bao to partner with Era TV to establish a second league. As star players were poached with high salaries, competition between the two leagues officially began. ¹³

The First Near-Death Experience: Black Elephants and the Exit of Three Teams

In 1996, professional baseball players' involvement in signing bets and throwing games came to light, an event historically known as the Black Elephants scandal. Since then, the CPBL has faced several waves of game-fixing cases. ⁴ A subsequent ruling by the Taiwan High Court determined that the thrown games occurred that year. ⁵ During the 1997 season, following large-scale interrogations and arrests by investigators, almost all local players from the Times Eagles were taken away; the team had to rely on players provided by other league teams to finish the second half of the season. ⁶ Fans' distrust of the games was directly reflected in declining attendance numbers.

This was followed by the exit of several clubs. The Times Eagles disbanded in September 1998. In 1998 and 1999, the league adopted a single-season format, but box office revenues failed to improve. After the 1999 season ended, the Sanwa Tigers and Wei Chuan Dragons announced their disbandment one after another, returning the league to a four-team scale. In 2000, the average attendance per game dropped to just 1,676 people. ¹⁴⁶

It took only two years to go from seven teams to four.

Merger and Revitalization

In 2001, the 34th Baseball World Cup was held in Taiwan. The Chinese Taipei team called up 15 professional players and, led by Chang Chih-chia and Chen Chin-feng, defeated Japan 3:0 to claim third place. This marked the third time Taiwan had secured third place in the history of the Baseball World Cup. Playing matches on home soil reignited the passion of the fans. ¹⁷

On October 25, 2002, the CPBL signed a merger agreement with the Taiwan Major League (TML). On January 13, 2003, the two leagues officially merged under the witnessing of Lin Te-fu, Chairman of the Executive Yuan Sports Affairs Council, and President Chen Shui-bian. The original four teams of the TML were reorganized into two teams—the Shengte Suns and the Fubon Gida (First Diamonds)—which then joined the league. The league was renamed the "Chinese Professional Baseball League." ⁸⁹

On March 1, 2003, the first opening game after the merger took place at Tianmu Baseball Stadium. ¹

The Second Near-Death: Black Bears, Black Whales, Black Rice, and Black Elephants

The shadow of game-fixing did not disappear with the merger.

In July 2005, the Criminal Investigation Bureau arrested ten individuals, including a catcher from the La New Bears, a coach from the Chinatrust Cobras' second team, and a former Fubon Bulls translator and gambling ring leader. Several players and coaches were detained or released on bail and subsequently dismissed by their teams; this is historically known as the Black Bear incident. ¹¹⁰ In August 2007, it was revealed that some CTBC Whales players had been threatened or bribed by a representative with organized crime ties, an event known as the Black Whale incident. ¹

In October 2008, the Media Rhinos—formerly the Chinatrust Cobras—came under investigation by prosecutors who suspected the team had been purchased through a joint venture between behind-the-scenes financiers and gambling ring leaders to directly manipulate games. The league suspended and expelled the team, an event known as the Black Rice incident. ¹ One month later, on November 11, the CTBC Whales announced their dissolution, leaving the league with only four teams once again. ¹¹ The Black Rice case proceeded to a second instance at the High Court in 2013; the behind-the-scenes financier was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to two years in prison, while the breach of trust charge against the team owner was dismissed due to insufficient evidence. ¹²

On October 26, 2009, the day after the Taiwan Series ended, prosecutors launched large-scale searches, and several Brother Elephants players were summoned for questioning, an event known as the Black Elephant incident. ¹¹³ The investigation concluded in February 2010, with a total of 24 people indicted on charges of fraud and gambling. ¹⁴

From 2005 to 2009, almost every year saw rumors of teams being involved in gambling. ¹³ As a result, ticket sales declined sharply; the total attendance for the full year of 2010 was nearly 30% lower than the previous year. Teams at one point considered dissolving, and many players chose to remain in amateur leagues or go abroad to play directly. ¹

The Taipei Dome Era

In 2012, the Fubon Group, which had operated the Fubon Rhinos (formerly Sinon Bulls) for seventeen years, could no longer sustain the losses and decided to terminate the team's operations. On December 17 of that year, the team was sold to the Yitai Group for NT$130 million and renamed the EDA Rhinos. ¹¹⁵ The craze surrounding the 2013 World Baseball Classic and the "Manny phenomenon" helped professional baseball's popularity recover. ¹⁴

The Brothers Elephants also announced a resale that same year; in 2014, a subsidiary of CTBC Financial Holding took over, and the team was renamed the CTBC Brothers. In 2016, Fubon acquired the EDA Rhinos for NT$300 million and renamed them the Fubon Guardians. ¹¹⁶

The league also expanded. On September 12, 2017, the Board of Directors approved the membership regulations: a new team must prepare NT$580 million (comprising NT$360 million in security deposit, NT$120 million in entry fee, and NT$100 million for a local baseball promotion fund), and after joining, they must first play in the minor leagues before being promoted to the first division. ¹⁷¹⁸ The Wei Chuan Dragons returned in 2019 and were promoted to the first division in 2021. The TSG Hawks became the sixth team in 2022 and were promoted to the first division in 2024. ¹¹⁹

On March 30, 2024, the CPBL held its first-ever regular season game at the Taipei Dome, with 28,618 attendees, setting a new domestic professional baseball single-game attendance record. ²⁰ On August 3, a CTBC Brothers home game attracted 34,506 people, breaking the record once again. ²¹ During Chou Ssu-chi's retirement games on September 21 and 22, both games were sold out with 40,000 attendees each. ²²

Throughout the entire 2024 season, the league saw a total of 2,766,386 regular season attendees, averaging 7,684 per game, both of which set records. ¹²³ The 38 regular season games at the Taipei Dome averaged 20,689 attendees, making the CTBC Brothers the first team to average over 10,000 fans per home game. ²⁴²² For the five games of the 2024 Taiwan Series, a total of 132,625 people attended, and the CTBC Brothers secured their tenth franchise title with a 4–1 record. ²⁵

In 2025, the All-Star Game at the Taipei Dome saw two consecutive sold-out games, totaling 80,000 attendees. ²⁶ That same year, the regular season averaged 10,373 people per game—surpassing the 10,000 mark for the first time—with a total of 3,734,429 attendees throughout the year. ⁴ Liberty Times estimated that the total revenue for the six teams exceeded US$100 million, approximately NT$3.1 billion. ²⁷

On October 26, 2026, the Wei Chuan Dragons defeated the CTBC Brothers with a 4–2 record in the Taiwan Series to claim their sixth franchise championship, with a cumulative 230,615 attendees across the six games. ²⁸²⁹ At this time, the CPBL consisted of six teams, and Chairman Tsai Chi-chang's term was set to run until around March 2027. ³⁰³¹

Further Reading:

• Taiwan Baseball Culture — The overall context from youth baseball to professionalization
• Taiwan Sports Development and the Olympics — International competitions and the "Chinese Taipei" framework
• Lee Chu-yun — How cheerleader culture became a reason for attendance

References