[Official] "Shocking Announcement" — Who Would Dare Go to Gocheok Dome? Scandal Over "Defective Reinforcement," Even Fine Dust Levels Exceed Standards... Board of Audit and Inspection Releases Interim Findings

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Major domestic multi-use sports facilities, including the Gocheok Skydome where KBO League games and various year-end concerts are held, have been found to have knowingly tolerated or inadequately reinforced structural defects, causing shock.

In particular, it was confirmed that despite severe bending in the steel frame connections of the Gocheok Dome's roof, shoddy reinforcement work was carried out contrary to safety inspection results, leaving the load-bearing capacity still insufficient.

According to NEWS1 and NEWSIS, the Board of Audit and Inspection released interim findings on the 21st from its official audit on "Safety Management Status of Multi-Use Sports Facilities," conducted targeting the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister Choi Hui-young, hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) and local governments.

While visitors to 25 large-scale sports facilities with an annual audience of over 100,000 reached 3.04 million as of last year, comprehensive management failures ranging from structural safety to fire evacuation have come under scrutiny.

The Gocheok Skydome, home ground of the professional baseball team Kiwoom Heroes and a hub for large-scale concerts, was identified as the most problematic site in this audit.

According to the Board of Audit and Inspection, Seoul Facility Corporation (CEO Han Young-kyung) discovered serious defects in June 2024, where 23 out of 466 steel truss (triangular structure) connections on the Gocheok Skydome roof were bent by approximately 100 to 178mm, far exceeding the allowable construction tolerance of 15mm.

Subsequently, even after a precise safety diagnosis in February last year recommended reinforcing "both sides" of the trusses, construction proceeded without separate structural safety verification procedures when the contractor argued that reinforcing only one side would be safe.

However, upon re-examination by the Board of Audit and Inspection through specialized institutional investors, it was revealed that these inadequately reinforced connections still have grossly insufficient load-bearing capacity to withstand weight.

The fire evacuation and crowd safety management systems were also criticized. Domestic sports facilities currently lack clear evacuation time standards for calculating evacuation facility capacity.

In particular, while it was analyzed that it takes 17 to 22 minutes for all Gocheok Dome spectators to evacuate, the evacuation time was arbitrarily set at a generous 50 minutes, leading to the judgment that the current scale of evacuation facilities is "appropriate." Standards from the International Football Federation (FIFA) and countries like the UK require evacuation within 8 minutes.

Problems were also revealed in the operation of fire safety equipment intended to prevent loss of life in case of fire. It was pointed out that some sports facilities, including Gocheok Dome, have a maximum shortfall of 729kW in the actual capacity of their dual-purpose emergency generators for firefighting, posing a risk that power supply could be disrupted during a fire, causing fire safety equipment to completely fail.

Furthermore, it was revealed that despite fine dust concentrations at Gocheok Dome significantly exceeding standards due to special effects during large concerts, no substantial improvement measures were taken; instead, measurements were entirely halted, drawing criticism.

Meanwhile, in the Board of Audit and Inspection's announcement on the same day, issues beyond Gocheok Dome were also pointed out, including neglected roof damage at Incheon Munhak Stadium, omission of 120-ton cauldron load at Seoul World Cup Stadium, construction with omitted rebar at Jeonju World Cup Stadium, and sales exceeding 70% of concert tickets at indoor sports facilities, highlighting a comprehensive state of safety management failures across national sports facilities.

The Board of Audit and Inspection stated that the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and local governments are preparing pre-emptive measures regarding the facility defects and management failures identified this time. The final audit results and specific disposal requirements will be determined after deliberation by the Audit Committee in the future.

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*This content was translated by AI.View Original