Officials 'Up In Arms' As Seoul-Based Baseball Club Could Be Moved By City

South Korean baseball officials "were up in arms Friday against Seoul's plan" to relocate its professional club to a new domed stadium next year, according to YONHAP. Officials accused the city "of reaching the decision unilaterally without prior consultation with the baseball community." The Seoul Metropolitan Government on Thursday "laid out a plan" to move one of three Seoul-based Korea Baseball Organization clubs in '13 to a dome currently under construction in Gocheok-dong, a neighborhood in southwest Seoul. The Doosan Bears and the LG Twins play their home games at Jamsil Stadium in southern Seoul with 26,000 seats, while the Nexen Heroes are based at the 14,000-seat Mokdong Stadium with no outfield seats in western Seoul. Both stadiums are properties of the city, and the teams pay the government annual fees for their use. KBO Secretary General Yang Hae-Young said, "The city never came to us to talk about this. These Seoul teams pay to play at Jamsil and Mokdong, and the city seems to think it can do whatever it wants to do with the three clubs" (YONHAP, 11/23).