“Baseball stadium with large crowds, defects in overhead speakers and kids zone neglected”

After the death of a falling object at Changwon NC Park last year, the government launched a joint inspection of baseball stadium facilities across the country, but it was found that key facilities with a high risk of fatal accidents were neglected at Gwangju and Busan baseball stadiums, which attracted 2.65 million spectators this season.

According to the 'Status of joint inspection measures for professional baseball stadiums' submitted by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 15th by Rep. Sang-beom Yoo of the People's Power Party, a member of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee of the National Assembly, as of September this year, 557 cases (74.7%) out of 746 cases pointed out at 12 baseball stadiums across the country have been completed.

However, compared to the average action rate (93%) of the eight stadiums that were actually operated, excluding the four that did not hold regular games due to reconstruction or expansion, two stadiums, Busan Sajik Baseball Stadium (81.7%) and Gwangju-Kia Champions Field (83.9%), fell below the average of other stadiums by more than 10 percentage points.

First, at Sajik Stadium in Busan, which was visited by 1.36 million people this season, 22 out of 120 points were not taken action.

In particular, it was found that no repairs were made even though many collapse risk factors were discovered, such as corrosion and loss of section at the ends of the steel pillars supporting the outfield kids zone, which is a space for children, and defective fixed angle welding.

The local government and the club announced that they would take action before next season, saying, “We judged the risk to be low and so it was pushed down the priority list.”

Additionally, at Gwangju Champions Field, which was visited by 1.29 million spectators this season, only 52 out of 62 measures were completed, and 10 key safety measures were left unimplemented.

Specifically, it was found that double safety measures were required, such as missing bolts in the fixing part of the wall- and ceiling-mounted speakers hanging above the heads of visitors, and installing fall protection nets due to poor construction conditions.

In particular, Rep. Yoo said that the team and local government responded that they would postpone the repairs until after the end of the postseason, even though a fall could lead to serious casualties as the spectator passageway and the entrance to the kids zone are adjacent to the area directly below the large speaker.

Rep. Yoo said, “Even though it has been 9 months since the inspection was conducted to prevent recurrence of fatal accidents at NC Park, risk factors directly related to spectator safety remain unmeasured,” and added, “Fatal defects hidden behind simple maintenance performance should not be neglected with the excuse of ‘lack of budget’ or ‘after the end of the season.’”