Changwon City in Gyeongnam is establishing a support plan to prevent the transfer of the professional baseball NC Dinos' home ground and is undergoing a process to gather citizen opinions. The plan outlines that 134.6 billion won will be gradually invested over the next 20 years.
According to Changwon City, as of the 1st, the city is formulating a support plan in response to 21 requests made by the NC team and is engaged in a process to gather citizen opinions.
According to the support plan, starting next year, the maintenance of facilities at Changwon NC Park and Masan Baseball Stadium will be handled by the Changwon Facilities Corporation, while the team will only manage the ground and revenue facilities. This is in response to the team's demand to focus solely on baseball games.
Additionally, the support plans related to the expansion of seating for spectators, securing parking, and expanding public transportation routes requested by the team have also been disclosed.
The city plans to invest 6.5 billion won by 2028 for the expansion of 2,000 seats in the outfield and will spend 1.9 billion won on the construction of the second floor expansion of the team store, which will be completed by March 2027. The installation of an additional electronic scoreboard is planned to be finished by 2027 for 3.9 billion won.
Two practice fields dedicated to the second team will be provided through a multipurpose sports facility in Jinhae-gu, Jaeun-dong. Until then, a temporary infield will be created in the Masan Baseball Stadium parking lot for use.
Accessibility for fans will also be strengthened. To this end, the city is reviewing plans to expand public transportation routes and to operate shuttle buses between Jinhae Yongwon and the baseball stadium.
Regarding the operation of shuttle buses, the city is initially investing 53 million won and has started trial operation of two routes (Changwon·Jinhae) and two external routes (Gimhae·Jinju) during the remaining weekend home games of the second half since the 25th of last month.
Due to the lack of available space at the Masan Baseball Center's steel framework parking lot, plans are in place to add 600 spaces by expanding the existing three floors of the parking garage. The city also plans to actively propose sharing progress regarding the establishment of a tram and the extension of railway lines as requested by the team and to extend the last KTX train time to at least 10:10 p.m.
Changwon City estimates that a total of 134.6 billion won will be required for the project over the 20 years from this year until 2044. Among this, the facility environment improvement sector occupies the largest share at 106.4 billion won, and plans to secure 30-50% of national and provincial government funds for the initiative.
Acting Mayor Jang Geum-yong said, "In a difficult situation with population outflow and economic conditions, professional baseball is a valuable asset that provides comfort and enjoyment to citizens," and added, "As we have engaged in in-depth discussions, we will fully gather citizen opinions through an information session and move forward with negotiations with the team. "