“Get rid of the basketball room”, SK-Samsung leaves Jamsil and looks for temporary housing
It’s not just baseball next door. The Jamsil-based professional basketball teams SK Knights and Samsung Thunder will also be leaving their homes for several years starting in 2026.
The city of Seoul has announced plans to build a world-class “sports and MICE complex” on the site of the Jamsil Sports Complex. In addition to the much-talked-about dome baseball stadium, a new basketball court will be built. The sports complex will have a capacity of 10,000 seats for basketball and volleyball games, as well as various exhibitions and performances. Considering the age of the Jamsil Student Gymnasium and Indoor Gymnasium, which are over 40 years old, the stadium itself is a welcome addition for SK and Samsung.
The problem is the process.
Like LG and Doosan at the ballpark, the SK Knights and Samsung Thunder have been notified by the Seoul Metropolitan Government to vacate Jamsil. Construction is not expected to begin until 2026, and the sports complex will take three years to complete. This means that the two teams will have to leave Jamsil as early as the 2024-25 season and as late as the 2025-26 season to find a new home for the next three to four years. 레고토토
An alternative to building a new sports complex would be to utilize the new student center, which is slated for completion in 2026. However, this is unlikely. The new stadium, which will be built next to the main stadium, is designed to seat no more than 2,000 people and include a swimming pool. During last season’s championship, SK sold out 5,400 seats in the existing student center.
Faced with this sudden reality, SK and Samsung are also making moves. “Both clubs have to find an alternative venue on their own,” said a club official. It would be nice to go somewhere close to Seoul, but we don’t know at this point. We don’t have an exact date for construction, so we’re planning to move in earnest at that point,” explained the current situation.
The two clubs are looking at alternative venues in the Seoul metropolitan area, mainly municipal sports facilities and university gymnasiums. It is also possible that they could move out of Seoul to Gyeonggi-do, where there are indoor gyms such as Seongnam and Uijeongbu. This would require further discussions with other sports such as volleyball. It is also possible to utilize university gymnasiums in Seoul, but there are inevitable constraints such as commercial use restrictions. For now, it is difficult to find a quick answer.
“Due to the private nature of the project, the completion of the sports complex may be ahead of schedule depending on further negotiations and the detailed design and construction process,” the Seoul Metropolitan Government said, “and we are continuing to communicate with professional basketball teams with ties to Jamsil.”