Ulsan: The NC Dinos announced Thursday they will play the remainder of this South Korean baseball season at a temporary home, owing to safety issues at their original ballpark in light of a tragic incident in March.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the Dinos said Ulsan Munsu Baseball Stadium in Ulsan, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, will be their home for the rest of this Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) campaign. Their first home game there will be May 16 against the Kiwoom Heroes.
The Dinos are based in Changwon, about 70 kilometers southwest of Ulsan. They have not played at Changwon NC Park since March 29, when a female fan was struck by a louver panel that fell off a window of the Dinos' office above a concession stand. She died of a head injury two days later. Officials from the Dinos and the municipal government of Changwon launched safety inspections at the ballpark, which opened in 2019, but have not agreed on a timetable for the stadium's reopening. This forced the Dinos to begin searching for a temporary home last week.
The Dinos contacted Ulsan after the long weekend and expressed gratitude for the city's cooperation. "With the support of the KBO, we explored several options and decided on Munsu Stadium after talks with the city of Ulsan," Dinos CEO Lee Jin-man said. "Ulsan has agreed to handle maintenance and management of the stadium. I'd like to thank the city for their active cooperation."
The Dinos have had to swap scheduled home games with their opponents and play them on the road instead. They are 1-4-0 (wins-losses-ties) in Changwon and 14-14-0 on the road. They will enter the weekend action on a season-high five-game winning streak, while sitting in a virtual tie for sixth place.
Because of multiple disruptions to their schedule, the Dinos have played the fewest games in the KBO so far this year with 33. Ulsan Munsu Baseball Stadium, which opened in 2014 with a capacity of about 12,000, has served as an alternate home for another KBO club, the Lotte Giants, in previous seasons.