Hanwha Eagles will use Baseball Dream Park, which is scheduled to open in the 2025 season, for 25 years until the 2049 season.
Hanwha Eagles CEO Park Chan-hyuk said, "Hanwha Eagles has been working with Daejeon City to make the new stadium a 365-day cultural space for Daejeon citizens and a future-oriented and differentiated stadium representing Korean professional baseball. We thank Daejeon City for accepting the club's various proposals, and we will make every effort to prepare the club for the rest of the year until the opening."
Daejeon Hanwha Life Eagles Park, currently used by Hanwha Eagles, is the oldest stadium among the 10 home stadiums in the KBO League. It opened in 1964 and marks the 60th anniversary this year. It is also a stadium with a long history, but on the other hand, it could not avoid criticism that the facility was aging. Of course, Hanwha Club and Daejeon City have devoted their efforts to repair and expand through large and small construction, but the team's locker room and training facilities are still narrow and poor. This is also why the need for new stadiums has been steadily raised.
As the voices of fans who want a new stadium grew, Hanwha Club and Daejeon City continued to discuss issues related to the new stadium. Hanwha Club formed a TF team in 2021 and presented Daejeon with the basic direction of the new stadium, which comprehensively considers performance, accessibility of fans, and convenience of viewing. It also signed an agreement with a U.S. sports facility design company to devise a stadium design plan by reviewing various cases of excellent stadiums at home and abroad, the placement of facilities suitable for the club's identity, and the convenience of viewing.
Hanwha TF has proposed a full-fledged "asymmetric viewing stadium" that will expand the number of infield seats on the first base side in consideration of the characteristics of Daejeon's home team's fan-centered viewing culture, while the third base side will contain cultural facilities that can be enjoyed even during non-permanent days. It also includes ideas such as a double-decker bullpen, a fence with a wire-less "asymmetric height," a change in the location of electronic boards, an outfield large tree fence to inherit the heritage of Daejeon Stadium in the past and lock up the stadium's heat, a unique space with private jacuzzi, and a parking lot conversion of existing stadiums on game days.
In the case of the double-decker bullpen, it has not been introduced in the KBO League yet in the form of being adopted by several major league stadiums such as Citizens Bank Park, the home of the Philadelphia Phillies in the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB). Placing the bullpen in two layers has the effect of increasing space efficiency and increasing the interest of fans. Irregular-height fences also eliminate wire mesh, increasing the likelihood of outfielders' dramatic rain.
After such continuous discussions, the groundbreaking ceremony was finally held in March this year. Baseball Dream Park is a new baseball field built on the site of Hanbat Stadium next to Hanwha Life Eagles Park, with a total project cost of 161.7 billion won. The number of seats is 20,607, which is about 7,000 more than the current capacity of 13,000 seats. The bullpen is also composed of a "double-layered bullpen" that separates the away team and the home team, and for the first time in Asia, baseball fans have introduced a structure that allows them to see the bullpen situation of both teams at a glance.
In line with the concept of "home friend," Hanwha's team proposed to Daejeon City a revision to the basic design for more than 100 items to implement asymmetry and improve the convenience of players, fans, and citizens. As Daejeon City has proactively accepted almost all of them, a new stadium that has not been seen in the KBO League has been created, including the first double-decker bullpen in Asia and Infinity Pool.
Hanwha and Daejeon City's goal is to start the 2025 season at Baseball Dream Park. The construction is proceeding smoothly. The day when fans and players can enjoy baseball in a more pleasant environment is slowly approaching.
