Changwon: The NC Dinos have agreed to extend the deadline for their home city to meet their demands while continuing their talks with other cities for possible relocation, officials said Monday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, officials for the Dinos and the city of Changwon, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul in South Gyeongsang Province, said the municipal government has been granted extra time to review and devise plans to implement 21 demands made by the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) club. The Dinos have threatened to move out of Changwon if their demands weren't met and had set Monday as the deadline for the preliminary response from the city.
The Dinos' demands include adding seats to their home stadium, Changwon NC Park, adding parking spaces, and improving fans' accessibility to the stadium by expanding public transit routes. The city estimates meeting those demands will require about 100 billion won (US$73.9 million).
Following the tragic death of a fan during a KBO game at Changwon NC Park on March 29, the Dinos spent the next two months on the road while safety inspections and maintenance work took place at the stadium. In light of the incident, Changwon faced criticism for shunning responsibility for running the stadium even though it owns the facility. Later on, baseball fans hammered Changwon for dragging its feet when the Dinos were trying to determine a return date following the end of inspections.
Upon returning to Changwon NC Park, Dinos CEO Lee Jin-man announced at a press conference he was exploring the possibility of relocating the team to another city and claimed that the ball club had been "treated unreasonably" by Changwon. After the threat was issued, Jang Geum-yong, acting mayor of Changwon, and Park Wan-soo, governor of South Gyeongsang Province, have both vowed to do their best to ensure the Dinos will not leave.
A Dinos official said the city has been working hard to best meet the ball club's demands and added, "We've been having concrete working-level talks with Changwon and we will take our time with them." The Dinos previously acknowledged that they had received offers from "multiple municipalities" to relocate and that some of the conditions were even better than what the Dinos are demanding from Changwon. The team official said the Dinos will continue their dialogues with those other cities while negotiations with Changwon are ongoing.