The KBO’s board of directors holds a meeting at its headquarters in Seoul Tuesday to discuss issues concerning the NC Dinos’ entry to the first division as of 2013 and creation of a 10th team of the league. / Yonhap

10th team delayed

By Jung Min-ho

The NC Dinos will join the Korean baseball league’s first division as of 2013, while there won’t be a 10th new team for a while, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) ruled Tuesday.

“Although it is optimal to operate the league with ten teams, it has been decided to thoroughly go over the plan from different perspectives before making the final decision,” said a KBO official. “It was also decided that we will proactively support middle and high school baseball teams by enhancing the facilities, creating an audience-friendly environment, and providing jobs for them (after graduation).”

The decision came at the board of directors’ fourth meeting held Tuesday. Commissioner Koo Bon-neung also participated in the meeting. Since the board of directors failed to reach a consensus over the issue of creating a new team, it is anticipated to draw criticism from fans and related-organizations that support the idea.

“The decision came out the way we predicted,” Chang Yoon-ho, public relations director of the Korea Baseball Association, said. “Although we are pleased that the NC Dinos’ entry to the first division has been approved as of next year, it is a bad news to hear that creating a 10th team remains unresolved.”

Because running the league with an odd number teams has some potential problems such as reducing the number of matches between rivals and creating unnecessary days-off to balance the games among the clubs, the proposal is expected to stay on the table.

“I am not sure how long it will take to discuss the issue to put an end to it,” Chang said. “Since they did not inform us of the specific date for the next meeting, it may take a year.”

The Lotte Giants were known to be the most vocal in the opposition to a new side at the previous meeting. Their president, Jang Byeong-su showed his skepticism for running the league with ten teams, which soon faced fire from a slew of baseball fans and related organizations.