Baseball Dome Stadium Will Be Built In Seoul

The capital city Seoul might have a baseball dome stadium for the first time in the nation by as early as 2007.

The Vice Mayor for Political Affairs Jung Doo-yeon said on July 7th, “We are discussing to construct a baseball dome ground in Seoul with private investments.”

The city will estimate the feasibility, location and size of the construction this month to begin the work after 2005 when the Chunggye recovery project ends. The stadium will be completed by 2007 to 2008.

Involving costs are expected to reach 300 billion won and, at present, Seoul Chamber of Commerce unofficially expressed its intention to provide investment for the project.

Feasible construction sites for the project are referred to be Chamsil Sports Stadium and Dduksom near Han River. Dongdaemun Sports Stadium currently being used as a parking lot during the Chunggye recovery project was excluded from possible candidate sites because of expected traffic jams and unproper capacity.

But the demerit of the Chamsil Stadium as a construction site is the fact that it already has a baseball playground, which can be an inefficiently duplicate investment project.

Seoul City`s Junior Sports Team Director Bak Moo-kyung said, “We are considering various ways such as building a separate dome stadium or remodeling the existing baseball stadium.”

The city will also plan to make a multi-use facility such as a shopping mall or hotel to raise profitability like Seoul World Cup Stadium in Sangam-dong.

Seoul City Mayor Lee Myung-bak said back in February that he would build a dome stadium at the opening ceremony of Seoul City`s co-promotion project with such baseball teams as Doosan and LG.

The city also plans to make a fashion mall on the ground of Chunggye site while using its ground as a parking lot after the project is completed.

Or it might build up a sports museum to maintain the history of sports around the Dongdaemun region which has served as an origin of amateur baseball as the sports circle proposed.

Ji-Young Chae yourcat@donga.com