Jamsil Sports Complex renovation to begin in June

A bird's eye view of the Jamsil Sport MICE Complex project [SEOUL METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT}

The Jamsil Sports Complex, also known as the Seoul Sports Complex, in Songpa District, southern Seoul, will be renovated starting in June.

Once the plan passes through several review processes, the renovation of the sports complex will begin in early June, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government.

The renovation, a part of the Jamsil Sports MICE Complex project, is expected to be done by November 2026.

The project aims to transform the place into a hub for MICE, which stands for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions, a type of tourism that attracts large groups of people for business gatherings or retreats.

The venue has the history of hosting sports events, including the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Summer Olympics.

The exterior of the sports complex will be preserved, and only the interior of the facility is to undergo construction.

All 67,000 seats will be designed and reduced to 60,000, while infrastructure, such as running tracks and fields, will be renovated.

About 350 billion won ($268 million) will be committed for the renovation by Hyundai Motor, the contractor of the construction project. Hyundai Engineering & Construction will carry out the construction.

The Jamsil Students’ Gymnasium located in southeastern part of the complex will be moved to the southwest, where the current parking lot is located. The gymnasium will be expanded from the current 11,471 square meters (123,470 square feet) to 24,649 square meters. Housing facilities for the city’s sports teams are expected to be built next to the gymnasium.

The location of the current Jamsil Arena, which hosts sports games such as the Korean Basketball League, will be moved as well.

According to the city government, the Jamsil Baseball Stadium, the home stadium of the LG Twins and the Doosan Bears, may be transformed into a dome stadium.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government is currently in talks with a consortium formed by Hanwha and HDC for the project.

The consortium proposed renovating the stadium to a dome with 33,000 seats to the city government, according to an official from the city government. This is a smaller venue compared to Tokyo Dome, with 46,000 seats, but similar to the Belluna Dome in Saitama at 36,000 seats and twice the size of the Gocheok Sky Dome in western Seoul. The Gocheock Sky Dome’s seat capacity is 16,744.

“The proposed plan has not been accepted yet,” an official from the city government said.

“But we will carry on with the discussion.”

The discussions have been slow recently due to issues regarding high construction costs for materials and labor.

BY MOON HEE-CHUL, CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]