"It costs 1 trillion won to play domed stadium." Is that true? Lotte's new stadium, which is three years late, hopes to keep its promise of opening in 2031.

Nov 21, 2024

A panoramic view of the current Sajik Baseball Stadium site. Photo courtesy = Lotte Giants

2024 season sold out Sajik Baseball Stadium heat. Photo courtesy = Lotte Giants

The bird's eye view of the new stadium in Sajik released by Busan City. The Sajik New Stadium will be promoted in earnest starting with the design contest in 2025, and will begin reconstruction in 2028 and be completed in 2030. Photo courtesy of Busan City

"It costs 1 trillion won to play domed stadium" Fact? Lotte's new stadium, which is three years late "Opening in 2031, will be kept? When can Busan citizens' grief come true. For now, the period is three years behind.

Busan Mayor Park Hyung-joon announced his vision for the new Busan stadium on the 20th.

The key points of this presentation are three things. The location where the new stadium will be rebuilt is the current Sajik Baseball Stadium site. It is built in an open type, not a domed stadium. And the alternative stadium to be used during the reconstruction period is the remodeled Busan Asiad Main Stadium.

However, the timeline has changed. It is three years behind the original. The 2025 design contest will be the starting point. The reconstruction will take place for three years from 2028 to 2030, and the opening will be in 2031.In particular, Busan Mayor Park Hyung-joon also reviewed the controversial dome stadium "Dome Stadium, but it is not reasonable, with construction costs reaching KRW 1 trillion." It was decided to build an open stadium. Lotte's opinion was the same," he said, drawing a clear line.

Busan City's official position is that 'open-ended is better to vividly experience Busan's passionate cheering culture', but Sajik New Stadium is already planned to be built in a downfield manner due to concerns about noise complaints. After all, it's a matter of money.

Busan Mayor Park Hyung-joon started the first pitch for Lotte. Sports Chosun DB

The Busan Metropolitan Government and Lotte also jointly visited Sconfield, Hokkaido, which opened in 2023, to discuss whether it would be a dome stadium and asked for advice. The construction cost of Scon Field, which has a total capacity of 30,000 people, is about 600 billion won. However, Hokkaido and Nippon Ham Fighters, who built Escon Field, are also known to have expressed their position that it will cost KRW 1 trillion to build from now on.

The Busan Metropolitan Government estimates that the reconstruction cost of Sajik is about 320 billion won. The whole business plan is long overdue. In March, the Ministry of Public Administration and Security also completed a feasibility study for state funding. According to the report by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, the total cost of remodeling the alternative stadium (Asiad) is about 270 billion won. As a result, Lotte Group has prepared to provide 30 billion won in state funds and 81.7 billion won, which is about 30 percent. All the rest of the money should be covered by the Busan Metropolitan Government.

It was in 2007 that the construction of a new Busan stadium was first proposed. It would have been good for everyone if it had been promoted quickly at that time, but it was repeatedly abused only as a political slogan and delayed for 17 years.

Gwangju Kia Champions Field opened in 2014 and Daegu Samsung Lions Park opened in 2016. Changwon NC Park opened in 2019, and Hanwha Eagles will play at Baseball Dream Park from next year.

SSG Landers, which even used SSG Landers Field, opened in 2002, will move to Cheongna Dome Stadium in 2028. Now there are only three baseball stadiums built in the 20th century: Jamsil, Sajik, and Suwon.

The sold-out Sajik Baseball Stadium heat. Sports Chosun DB

Meanwhile, construction costs have also increased astronomically. The cost of construction at Champions Field was less than 100 billion. Lions Park was also under 170 billion won. Changwon NC Park is also worth about 130 billion won, and Baseball Dream Park built after the COVID-19 era is about 200 billion won.

However, the amount set for the new stadium in Sajik is more than 1.5 times that amount. It is a change brought about by a sharp rise in material and labor costs.

The most recent issue raised was the Busan National Sports Festival scheduled for 2025. Initially, the Busan Metropolitan Government proposed a blueprint to open the first shovel in 2026 after the National Sports Festival and open in 2029 after completion in 2028.

However, local governments that have held the National Sports Festival must hold the Juvenile Sports Festival the following year. The problem was complicated by the issue of the substitute stadium and the redevelopment plan of the site of Gudeok Stadium. At one point, Busan City was in trouble again, suggesting an auxiliary stadium instead of a Sajik Baseball Stadium as an alternative stadium or a new site. As the first shovel was delayed, old arguments such as 'Busan Dome' and 'Bukhang New Stadium' also resurfaced.

2024 season sold out Sajik Baseball Stadium heat. Photo courtesy = Lotte Giants

Fortunately for baseball fans, the redevelopment of Gudeok Stadium was eliminated from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport's urban regeneration innovation project in August, and traffic was unexpectedly cleared. Through this announcement, the Busan Metropolitan Government reiterated the three key elements mentioned above.

Unfortunately, the term of current Busan Mayor Park Hyung-joon, who has shown a strong will to rebuild the new Busan stadium, is until 2027, before the first shovel is opened. Now that the size of Lotte Group's subsidies for elements has already been confirmed from reconstruction to Asian remodeling, we just hope that Busan City will push ahead with it even after the head of the local government changes.

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.