KT Chosen as Owner of Korea’s Tenth Professional Baseball Franchise

Korea Telecom(KT), price cheap South Korea’s second largest mobile carrier, has been selected as the owner for the country’s tenth professional baseball team, and Suwon, Gyeonggi, was chosen as the team’s home

The KBO announced its evaluation council, composed of 22 baseball experts, chose mobile carrier giant as team owner and operator after reviewing applications. The KBO will request approval of its choice at a general meeting to be held with existing baseball franchise owners on January 22.

If two-thirds of the owners approve the KBO council’s designation, KT will officially become the 10th team, following its mobile industry rivals LG and SK.

KT would likely join the league in the 2015 season, after participating in the Futures’ League in 2014.

“The 22 evaluators favoured the baseball team management plan that KT and Suwon submitted more than the plan by Booyoung Group and North Jeolla,” KBO’s secretary general, Yang Hae-young, said.

Last Thursday the two candidate teams and their partner cities, KT and Suwon and Booyoung and North Jeolla (Jeonju), ountlined their plans for the 10th team at the Grand Intercontinental Hotel in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul. Booyoung is a construction company with more than a dozen affiliates.

Booyoung and North Jeolla, led by Lee Joong-keun, Booyoung CEO, and North Jeolla Governor Kim Wan-joo, pledged that they would build a new baseball stadium that could accommodate 25,000 fans by investing US$104 million by 2015.

They also said that the 10th team should awarded to North Jeolla so the league can be regionally distributed.

There are currently nine teams in the league, and four of them are in the Seoul metropolitan area–three in Seoul and one in Incheon.

KT and Suwon said that the southern city in Gyeonggi has a higher market value because it could attract more baseball fans.

Suwon has a population of 1.15 million, and about 6.4 million people live within an hour of the stadium.

North Jeolla said it could reach out to 1.3 million people in Jeonju and nearby cities Gunsan, Iksan and Wanju.

Mobile carrier KT also promised to donate US$18.9 million to the league for baseball’s growth and development and to invest US$27.5 million in remodelling the existing Suwon Baseball Stadium into a facility that can accommodate up to 25,000 fans.{jcomments on}