New ballpark plan for expansion team met with opposition

CHANGWON, South Korea, June 7 (Yonhap) -- The plan to build a new stadium in this southeastern city for an expansion baseball team was met with opposition from civic activists Tuesday, amid the debate over who should shoulder the construction costs.
Civic activist groups in this South Gyeongsang Province city of Changwon, about 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul, asked the municipal government to reconsider a stadium construction deal with the expansion team, owned by a local online game company, NCsoft.
As part of the expansion agreement with the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), NCsoft must open a new ballpark with at least 25,000 seats within five years. The city of Changwon is set to bear the costs.
Activists pointed out that in two other cities where new ballparks are in the plans, the parent companies of the home teams will pick up some of the costs. All eight current KBO teams are owned by private companies, including major conglomerates such as Samsung, Doosan and SK.
In Daegu in the country's southeast region, the home team Samsung Lions will spend 50 billion won (US$46.4 million) of an estimated 150 billion won needed for a new stadium. In Gwangju in the southwest, the Kia Tigers plan to pay 30 billion won of the 100 billion won costs for their new park.
"It's a huge benefit (for the NCsoft team) to have Changwon cover all the construction costs," activists said in a joint statement. "Building the stadium will place a burden on the city finances and will affect other areas. (The city) should renegotiate the deal with the KBO and NCsoft."
Last week, Kim Dong-soo, a member of the city council, said the stadium construction could cost up to 300 billion won and it would put too much pressure on Changwon.
Following months of preparations, NCsoft became the owner of the ninth KBO club in March this year. It could join the top-flight baseball league as early as 2013. It will be the league's first expansion since 1991.
Until the new park is completed, the NCsoft team will play at an existing park, Masan Stadium. It seats 21,000, and opponents of building a new park said Masan Stadium can be renovated for use.
An official with the municipal government said the cost for the new park would be limited to around 100 billion won, and it could also receive state funding of up to 30 percent of that money.
"Having a new ballpark built was one of the reasons NCsoft got into this business in the first place," the official said. "And when the new park opens, it will belong to Changwon residents, not just NCsoft. And since we will receive portions of ticket sales and advertising revenues, it won't be a complete waste of taxpayers' money."
The official explained that renovating Masan Stadium to turn it into a 25,000-seat venue would be difficult for structural reasons. The park opened in 1982 and is currently used as a second home stadium for the Lotte Giants, who are based in Busan, about an hour away from here.