"On the advice of the president, I went to Sconfield and..." How did Ulsan, a soccer city, get serious about baseball

"On the advice of the president, I went to Sconfield and..." How did Ulsan, a soccer city, get serious about baseball

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"The president advised me, so I went to Sapporo Esconfield."

Ulsan Metropolitan City is a "football city." Ulsan HD, a K-League 1 club based in Ulsan, attracted 316,081 spectators from 17 home games this year. An average of 18,593 spectators visited the stadium every time. The stadium exceeded 300,000 spectators for the second consecutive year. Munsu World Cup Stadium was always full of Cheoyong warriors. His performance is also the best. He ascended to the throne of the K-League 1 for two consecutive years in the 2022-2023 season, and has played 33 games this season, as of now, he has been leading the league with 18 wins, seven draws and eight losses and 61 points. He is aiming at winning the title for the third consecutive year.

There is also a KBL-traditional powerhouse called Hyundai Mobis based in Ulsan. There was no place for baseball in Ulsan. First of all, there is no professional baseball team. There is only one high school baseball team, Ulsan Technical High School, founded in 2010. This was also converted to a student public sports club in 2021. Next to the World Cup Stadium, Munsu Baseball Stadium opened in 2014, but it was the second pitch of Lotte Giants based in Busan. There are only about six regular first-team games every year. Sometimes Futures League and high school weekend league games are held, but their utilization has dropped significantly.

Ulsan Mayor Kim Doo-kyum, who is interested in sports, also considered this issue. In the process of thinking, after meeting KBO President Koo Hu-yeon, the agony came to fruition. Mayor Kim Doo-kyum, who said, "I like sports a lot," said, "Ulsan is the mecca of soccer, but there is not a lot of diversity in sports. Still, the conditions are in place. I became interested because I thought about making good use of these conditions," and added, "When I watched baseball, I saw that the number of hobbyists has increased a lot, and when I go to the baseball stadium, there were so many people. In particular, many young people visit the baseball stadium," he said, directly experiencing the popularity of baseball, which surpassed 10 million spectators.

The meeting with KBO President Hu Jie-yeon was all the more meaningful. We discussed how to renovate and utilize Munsu Baseball Stadium, and in the process, we personally inspected the newest baseball stadium in Japan, Esconfield, Hokkaido Prefecture, and returned. Mayor Kim Doo-gyeom said, "I was going to renovate the baseball stadium, but I wasn't interested in this way. That's why I met President Hu Jie-yeon and went all the way to Esconfield. I was going to send only working-level officials in charge, but after hearing what the president said, I wanted to go there."

In fact, the dignity of Sconfield was great. Mayor Kim Doo-gyeom has also become greedy. Mayor Kim said, "I wanted to do better when I came to iron Sconfield. I got a little greedy. I thought I should imitate it, even though I can't satisfy everything."

After thinking about how to use Munsu Baseball Stadium, he ended up attracting the Education League. Mayor Kim said, "I never imagined holding an autumn education league. However, when I met the president, my eyes and ears opened. I tried to start from the smallest things," explaining the reason for hosting the education league.

Ulsan has become serious about baseball, and the KBO has set the stage. The Ulsan-KBO Fall League will be held from the 15th to the 29th. As Ulsan City has come to nothing, it has grown in size. The education league, which was previously held mainly by domestic teams, will feature the Softbank 3rd Army team from Japan's NPB, the Mexican League Alliance team (Team LMB), Jiangsu Hughesholds from China's CBA, and the Cuban national team (Team Cuba). Five teams, including LG, Goyang, NC, Lotte, and independent league All-Stars, will participate in the domestic team, with a total of nine teams participating. As the scale has grown, it will be divided and held at the KBO Baseball Center in Gijang, Busan, along with Munsu Stadium in Ulsan. 메이저사이트

The "carrot" of this fall's educational league, which will be held as part of the level-up project to strengthen the competitiveness of Korean baseball announced by KBO last year, is also certain. After nine preliminary games and final rounds per team, the final winning team will be awarded 20 million won and the runner-up team 10 million won.