Goodbye to Dongdaemun Stadium

Before the month is up, Dongdaemun Baseball Stadium will be demolished. A remodeled Mokdong Baseball Stadium will open next March as a substitute stadium.

Following these changes, the 62nd National High School Baseball Championship among other national amateur baseball competitions will be held at Mokdong Baseball Stadium.

The Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) and the Korea Baseball Association (KBA) have held talks with Seoul City officials and reached the above conclusion on Tuesday.

A member of the KBA said, “Dongdaemun Baseball Stadium will be torn down, so in order for games to go on while construction of Gocheok-dong Baseball Stadium in Guro-gu continues, remodeling work on Mokdong Baseball Stadium was recommended and agreed upon.”

Mokdong Baseball Stadium was built in 1989. It can house over 16 thousand spectators, but the ravages of time have taken a toll on the old stadium, and it has been most recently used as a venue for teams formed by senior citizens, children, and businessman.

Seoul City has set aside a total budget of 5.3 billion won for the remodeling of the aging Mok-dong Stadium. Astroturf and updated lighting systems and spectator seats will be installed. The old walls of the stadium will be used to create two new bullpens.

The outfield walls will be outfitted with special padding to protect players. Locker rooms, waiting rooms and pressrooms will be constructed as well.

Seoul City was planning to tear down Dongdaemun Baseball Stadium last month, but due to a delay in the construction of substitute stadiums, baseball personnel had to consider requests that are only now being fulfilled.

Some argued, “Forcing amateur players to perform in a tiny stadium with a spectator capacity of 400 would be a huge blow to the development of amateur baseball.”

Seoul City officials responded by saying, “The substitute stadiums are almost 51% complete. Qualifying or preliminary rounds of various baseball club matches will be held here.” After further discussions, the two sides will agree on whether the demolition of the old Dongdaemun Baseball Stadium should be expedited.

beetlez@donga.com