Baseball is also in the era of civic teams → Job expansion effect, KBO board of directors, Ulsan professional baseball team approved to participate in the Futures League

Baseball is also in the era of civic teams → Job expansion effect, KBO board of directors, Ulsan professional baseball team approved to participate in the Futures League
The KBO League Lotte and LG match will be held at Ulsan Munsu Baseball Stadium on the 25th. Ulsan Munsu Baseball Stadium, where it is raining before the game. Ulsan = Song Jeong-heon Reporter's songs@sportschosun.com/2025.09.25/



A meaningful change begins in the KBO League. It is the birth of the first civil baseball team.

KBO voted on the participation of a new club in Ulsan Metropolitan City (tentative name 'Ulsan Professional Baseball Team') in the Futures League and finally approved its participation from the 2026 season.

KBO has been preparing for the establishment of the club with Ulsan Metropolitan City (Mayor Kim Doo-gyeom) with the aim of enhancing the overall competitiveness of the league and expanding the base. With the final approval of participation in the Futures League at the board meeting, the Ulsan Professional Baseball Team became the first KBO League participating civic club established by local governments.




The Ulsan professional baseball team will be incorporated into the Futures League from next year and compete with 10 professional baseball teams and the Korean military sports unit. With the addition of the Ulsan professional baseball team, the Futures League will be operated with a total of 12 teams, with six in the north and six in the south.

Due to its geographical location, Ulsan will be incorporated into the southern league, and the Sangmu Baseball Team (located in Mungyeong-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do), which belonged to the southern league, will move to the northern league. Accordingly, the northern league will consist of six teams each from both leagues: Hanwha, LG, SSG, Doosan, Goyang, Sangmu, and the southern league will consist of KT, NC, Lotte, Samsung, KIA, and Ulsan.

As the participation in the KBO league is confirmed, the Ulsan professional baseball team should have infrastructure and organization as a baseball team.




Dedicated stadiums and training facilities should be secured, a club management corporation should be established, a professional front organization should be established, and a minimum number of athletes (7 coaching staff and 35 players) should be completed by mid-January next year.

The composition of the team can be autonomously selected regardless of the former, age, career, or draft history, such as unnamed KBO draft players, free agents, and foreign players under KBO regulations. In addition, it was decided to allow the selection of players who did not join a domestic professional club after overseas expansion. For foreign players, up to four players can be registered. The total amount of annual salary, down payment, options and transfer fees (excluding tax) can be contracted within $100,000 per player. For domestic players, the minimum annual salary is the same as 30 million won per year as the KBO regulations.
Baseball is also in the era of civic teams → Job expansion effect, KBO board of directors, Ulsan professional baseball team approved to participate in the Futures League
The KBO League Lotte and KIA match will be held at Ulsan Munsu Baseball Stadium on the 6th. Ulsan Baseball Stadium, free from the influence of Typhoon Hinnamno. Ulsan = Song Jeong-heon Reporter's songs@sportschosun.com/2022.09.06/
Players from the Ulsan professional baseball team can also transfer to KBO clubs during the season.

Among domestic players, players or foreign players with a history of participating in the KBO draft can be transferred to KBO clubs during the transferable period (from the day after the end of the postseason to July 31 of the following year). Players who do not have a history of participation in the KBO draft can be transferred after going through the KBO draft. The maximum number of players who can be transferred to the KBO club during a season is five, and the transfer fee cannot exceed the annual salary of the player.




With the establishment of the Ulsan Citizens' Baseball Team, it is expected that the overall number of baseball jobs will increase, not only for players who want to play more baseball but do not have the opportunity, but also for leaders and front organizations.

The 2026 Futures League, in which Ulsan professional baseball team participates, will open on March 20 and hold a total of 696 games, 116 games per team, and the game schedule will be announced later.

Meanwhile, KBO plans to make all-round efforts to revitalize and industrialize the Futures League. Together with each club, the government will continue to improve the facilities of some underdeveloped stadiums, increase the organization of night games to expand local people's opportunities to watch games, promote paid viewing, and promote broadcast expansion (tentative name 'Monday Night Baseball').



This article was translated by Naver AI translator.