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| This photo provided by the Seoul city government shows Mayor Oh Se-hoon, second from right, sitting on the skybox of Rogers Center in Toronto, Canada, Sept. 16. Yonhap |
The Seoul city government will build the world's second domed baseball stadium annexed with a hotel in its southeastern district of Jamsil by 2031, city officials said Monday.
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon unveiled the plan on Saturday after touring Canada's Rogers Center, a multipurpose retractable roof stadium, home to the Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball, in Toronto.
Toronto is the first leg of Oh's ongoing two-nation trip, which will also take him to New York for a global climate meeting.
Under the construction project, the city plans to demolish Jamsil Baseball Stadium after the end of the 2025 pro baseball season to break ground in 2026 and build the domed stadium in its place by the end of 2031.
The city is seeking to build a stadium big enough to accommodate more than 30,000 spectators and equipped with a concourse connecting to the grandstand as well as a variety of premium seats, including a skybox, a family zone and field boxes. During the off-season, the stadium can turn into a stage for large-scale music concerts or other public events.
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| This image provided by the Seoul city government shows a bird's-eye view of a domed stadium the city plans to build in Jamsil district, Seoul. Yonhap |
In particular, the city plans to have a 300-room hotel attached to the stadium, with 120 rooms overlooking the arena as some rooms of the Toronto Marriott City Centre Hotel attached to the Rogers Center famously do. The stadium, if developed as planned, would become the world's second sports arena attached to a hotel, city officials noted.
"Watching the baseball game is the purpose, but the well-built facilities, the attached hotel in particular, render the experience like a festival," Oh said. "We are reviewing the plan to build the stadium in combination with a hotel so that a baseball game can be enjoyed like a festival."
The domed stadium project is part of the city's broader plan to develop a sports and MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) complex in the district of Jamsil on a budget of about 500 billion won ($377.4 million) via private investment. (Yonhap)
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