South Korea, specifically, in this Geo-Financial panorama is "Core". Just consider the amount of great Sponsors, from Samsung to Daewoo, that can help Volleyball.
And think about it.
Would so many Asian Fans watch VNL is no Asian Country was represented?
This makes a lot of sense, there are generous sponsors and broadcasting rights paid for by the Asian countries.
I know Korea paid for broadcasting rights and there are commercials breaks (commercials pay big money in Korea), so the broadcasting company that bid for it and won (since there are multiple - KBS/SBS/etc) must've paid a good amount for it.
wtf? That's whole lotta money. I even thought Japan pays more because they have stellar imports compared to SoKor.
If you think that's a lot, multiply that by 7 equal clubs in the female league and another 7 in the men's league under the same salary cap.
The Korean men's team don't even qualify for the Olympics, but they're paid way more than the female league (though female has more popularity & viewership) so much so their fans are complaining that the female players are not being paid enough
SoKor's imports are only paid 200million krw capped so it's not crazy attractive to top players - and they go through a draft without being able to select their club too. The better player you are, the weaker of a team you go to (top of draft). Not sure how much Japan pays, would be interested to know.
Of course in an ideal VNL there are no core teams, but then volleyball will need to be popular enough to garner enough through sponsorships and broadcasting rights of every participating country.
I don't get why Herbots is complaining though, they are only above Korea. If they were above 2-3 core teams and still relegated it'll make more sense.
Only thing is the round robin system where not every team faces every team should be changed (but then too many matches again so...)