By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Telecommunications giant KT withdrew its plans to start a baseball franchise Friday after conflicting with other Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) clubs over a location and league fees.
The decision comes as a serious blow to Korean professional baseball, which now faces the danger of being reduced to a seven-team league for the first time in 18 years.
``We can't allow to spend an excessive amount of money and energy on a baseball team, which would be against the interests of our stockholders,'' said an official from KT's public relations department.
``It's also regrettable that the KBO was a poor communicator in terms of discussing baseball operations, such as new arrangements in amateur drafts and use of compensation players, and only seemed interested in the size of the franchise fee. All these needless controversies did no good to the public image of our company.''
Last month, the KBO announced that it reached a tentative agreement with KT over the acquisition of the now-defunct Hyundai Unicorns, a Suwon-based club that the country's largest automaker no longer wanted any part of.
Under the agreement, KT was allowed to relocate the team to Seoul at the price of a 5.4 billion won ($5.78 million) franchise fee and use the Mokdong Baseball Stadium as its home.
However, the decision drew resistance from other baseball clubs, particularly the Seoul-based Doosan Bears and LG Twins, which forced the KBO to hold a board meeting Tuesday to discuss the matter.
After the meeting, the KBO requested KT to up its offer for franchise fees, with some of the clubs claiming that the company should pay up to 18.5 billion won, which includes compensating the 13.1 billion won the league spent last season keep the Unicorns afloat.
Apparently, KT was determined not to loosen its purse strings any further.
Since the inclusion of the Ssangbangul Raiders as an expansion team in 1990, Korean baseball had been an eight-team league.
The KBO had hoped to sell the Unicorns to STX, one of the country's biggest heavy industry companies, but the deal fell through last November. With KT out of the mix, the KBO isn't likely to find a new owner for the Unicorns before Opening Day on March 28.
Players currently on the Unicorns' payroll, 69 including the farm team players, are likely to be put on waivers for other teams to take, which could significantly impact the league balance. This also means that a lot of players and coaches would be out of a job.
``There is not much to say at this point,'' said KBO secretary general Ha Il-sung. ``We will hold a board meeting as soon as possible to discuss the matter.''