The professional basketball KCC Egis are moving from Jeonju, Jeonbuk to Busan. A whopping 22 years of long companionship has come to an end, and the basketball team and Jeonju City are in sharp confrontation over the background of their departure. The Korean Basketball League (KBL) held a board meeting at the KBL Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the 30th and approved the move of KCC from Jeonju to Busan. As a result, KCC, which acquired Daejeon Hyundai Gulliver in May 2001 and relocated its hometown from Daejeon to Jeonju, will move to Busan again after 22 years. From the 2023-24 season, KCC's home games will be held at Sajik Gymnasium in Busan, not the existing Jeonju Indoor Gymnasium.
The city of Jeonju, which lost its basketball team, pointed out that there were problems in the process of relocating KCC's hometown, such as a lack of prior communication with the city. On this day, the city of Jeonju said in a statement, "I deeply regret the absurd behavior of KCC, which hastily and unilaterally decided to relocate." In this process, there was no notification, let alone consultation with Jeonju City,” he expressed his displeasure.
The team's position is different. Regarding this, KCC general manager Choi Hyeong-gil said, "It was noisy because of various problems with Jeonju City. The club persevered and restrained itself in order to deal with it smoothly, but it became an unbearable situation. Afterwards, after deep consideration, the final decision was made to relocate to the hometown." 토토사이트 He refuted that the cause of the relocation was in Jeonju. KCC, which boasted the most popularity in domestic professional basketball, relocated its hometown due to the slow construction of the gym. The Jeonju Indoor Gymnasium, which KCC used as its home stadium, was built in 1973 and was in a poor environment such as aging facilities. For this reason, KCC considered relocating to Suwon in 2016. At the time, Jeonju Mayor Kim Seung-soo visited the late KCC honorary chairman Jeong Sang-young and promised to build a new gym to prevent the relocation of the hometown, and KCC also withdrew the plan.
However, contrary to Jeonju City's promise to build a new gym near the Jeonju World Cup Stadium, the related project did not proceed at all. Rather, the city of Jeonju decided to virtually nullify the plan and build a baseball field on the site by 2026 to be used by the second team of professional baseball KT Wiz. In this situation, Chonbuk National University, which owns the site for the Jeonju Indoor Gymnasium, decided to demolish the gymnasium by 2025 for the campus innovation park development project, a national project, and KCC had to come up with an alternative.
The explanation of the KCC club is that they took out a transfer card as they were in a position to become a wanderer. Choi Hyeong-gil, general manager of KCC, said, "Seven years ago, I tried to move my hometown, but I stayed in Jeonju, and I was looking forward to building a new gymnasium (as promised by Jeonju City). The club was also willing to support some (of the construction cost). was broken. I decided that the relationship with Jeonju ended here." “In April, a member of the local parliament requested to build a gym (at the club level). From then on, I felt that the airflow was strange. Then in June, a groundbreaking ceremony was held to build a baseball field (on the site of the gym). It was also a situation where we had to empty it. At that time, we saw that Jeonju City had no will to accompany us.”
However, the city of Jeonju denied that it was true regarding the background explanation of KCC's relocation. The use-by date of the Jeonju Indoor Gymnasium, which has become an issue, is 2026, not 2025, and there is no reason to be a wanderer as the new gym is also planned to be completed within that time. The city of Jeonju told KCC after rumors of a relocation of the relevant site, 'The demolition of the Jeonju Indoor Gymnasium has been postponed until after 2026, so there is no need to vacate the gym. We clearly conveyed the position that we plan to complete it.” Jeonju City continued, "Nevertheless, KCC avoided meeting with Jeonju City and repeated incomprehensible words, 'Jeonju City cannot be trusted,' and proceeded with the relocation unilaterally, as if it were a script." I want to hear at least the answer to whether it was pushed forward," he said.
