A decision on the fate of the KBL’s Goyang Day One Jumpers is just two days away. Players, fans, and politicians are calling for a resolution.
The Korean Basketball League (KBL) announced on Thursday that the “28th 6th Extraordinary General Meeting and Board of Directors and the 7th Extraordinary General Meeting and Board of Directors will be held at 7 a.m. on the 16th at the KBL Center, 6th floor conference room,” and that the “Goyang Day One club-related agenda” will be addressed.
The ‘club-related issues’ are the salary arrears and specific measures on how to run the club in the future. Earlier, on June 31, the KBL announced this and warned, “If the club fails to fulfill its obligations by June 15, we will hold an extraordinary general meeting and board meeting on the 16th to deliberate on the status of the Day One club.” In effect, it hinted that the team could be expelled from the league.
After acquiring the Goyang Orions in May of last year, DaeWon announced its intention to operate the team through a naming rights sponsorship system, similar to the KBO League’s Grow Heroes.
However, within a month of the acquisition, the team’s registration was postponed due to problems with the team’s management plan, and in October of that year, the team was unable to pay the first installment of KRW 500 million of the KRW 1.5 billion registration fee before the start of the 2022-2023 season. In addition, during the 2022-23 season, the parent company Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering went into bankruptcy, and Carot Insurance canceled its sponsorship during the season. As a result, players and officials were behind on their wages, and the team almost missed the playoffs due to delays in paying the balance of their membership fee.
The organization is trying to resolve the situation in several ways, including relocating to Busan. However, even though the ultimatum deadline is one day away, the organization has not come up with a clear alternative. At this rate, the players and fans will be the ones to suffer.
In response, lawmakers Hong Jeong-min, Lee Yong-woo, and Han Jun-ho from Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, Gyeonggi-do, and five basketball fans, including captain Kim Kang-sun and players Han Ho-bin, Jeon Sung-hyun, and Lee Jung-hyun, held a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Center in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, on Thursday to call for a resolution of the situation.
“We have been waiting for the KBL to support the stable operation of the Day One basketball team and the basic maintenance of the players’ lives, such as paying their wages and guaranteeing the length of their contracts,” the fans said in a statement issued on behalf of the fans. “We hope that the KBL will disclose the criteria for approving the acquisition of the Orion team by an insolvent company called Day One Sports, which could not even pay the subscription fee in time to the extent that the acquisition of the soccer team was rejected due to insufficient points.” They continued.스포츠토토
“We appeal to the KBL to take responsibility for the wage arrears of the players who have been playing without pay since January this year and pay them using the 1.5 billion won in subscription fees and broadcasting revenue received from Day One, rather than the players themselves,” he said. “If the full amount of wage arrears is not resolved by the 15th, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism should recognize the FA status of the current Day One players, the same as the standard contract items,” he urged. “We hope that no players will retire due to this situation,” he added.
Kim Kang-sun, who has been with the team for 14 years, starting with the Daegu Orions and ending up with Day One, previously confessed at the team’s founding press conference in July last year that “the team changed from Daegu to Goyang,” adding, “I hope this is the last time.” However, his words are in danger of falling on deaf ears due to poor management by the club’s leadership.