An unexpected baseball team was sold.
I am a fan of Incheon Professional Baseball Team.
When I was born, the Incheon baseball team Sammi SuperstarsWas. Fortunately, there is no memory of the Superstars who repeatedly lost in a row because they were a difficult baby. Likewise Cheongbo PintosI don’t even remember. Acquired Cheongbo Pintos Pacific DolphinsRemains the first memory of professional baseball.
When I was in elementary school, I joined my father as a member of the Pacific Dolphins Children. It was only one year, but if you think about it now, it was the best gift my dad gave me when my family lived in a single room charter.
In 1998, I was a middle school student when the Incheon professional baseball team won the first victory. Team Hyundai UnicornsWas. Hyundai Unicorns, who showed the taste of the championship, abandoned Incheon and left for Suwon with the intention of relocating their homeland to Seoul.
Like touching the baton Double Drop RaidersAcquired SK WyvernsCame to Incheon. In 2000, I was in high school. In 2007, for the first time, the Korean series was intuition at the stadium. That year, SK Wyverns won the Korean Series for the first time. For me, the Incheon team’s second championship, SK Wyverns, was the first.
As a long-time professional baseball fan, he has often written articles about baseball in the Danji Ilbo. Recently, I wrote a story about Doosan Group, which holds the baseball team despite management difficulties and restructuring.(Article link). Doosan also criticized’baseball is the future’ after seeing the signing of a huge free agent contract with the player, rather than selling it.
Doosan tried to hear my criticism, but the result was…
Hux!
It was SK Wyverns that was sold.
It has been forty years since the establishment of a professional baseball team in Incheon, Sammi-Cheongbo-Pacific-Hyundai-SKThrough new worldIs expected to become the 6th Incheon professional baseball team(There is no place where the team name has changed as much as Incheon in Korean professional baseball).
It was a surprise news that was not enough even if you put all of the similar expressions such as’suddenly, suddenly, suddenly’. ‘It came out for sale’. All of the domestic professional baseball officials, the media, and fans amazed at the news that came out without rumors such as’recognizing the acquirer’ and’the sale rumors are turning’.
According to the follow-up report, the officials of the SK Wyverns club did not know.
It’s a sudden sale. Then why did he sell it suddenly? Genga had any problem.
Why did you sell it
The Korean professional baseball, which was launched with six clubs in 1982, is about to reach the 2021 season.(Currently there are 10 clubs)Many companies, ranging from to, have dipped their feet into the baseball board.
Samsung, Lotte, and Doosan remaining from the first year to the present(It was founded as OB Bears, and the location and team name have changed in the meantime, but the club remains without sale.)Excluding the remaining 7 teams that are currently in operation, Sammi, Haetae, Cheongbo, Pacific, MBC, Ssangbangul, and Hyundai formed a professional baseball team and left their feet.(4 of the seven teams excluding the feet are from Incheon, and out of the remaining three teams, the two are the predecessors of SK Wyverns.).
Doo-Hwan Chun’s 3S Policy(According to the first English letters of’screen, sports, sex’, it refers to a government-level allegorization policy to divert the public’s interests to another place.)In the first year of Korean professional baseball, a professional baseball team was sold, except in the case of MBC, which was founded with the government’s willingness to include a broadcaster for the success of professional baseball, sold the baseball team to LG Group in 1990. All the reasons ‘Management difficulties of parent company (restructuring)’ It was because.
The news of the sale of SK Wyverns shocked everyone, along with the unexpected news. ‘Why the hell’This is because the question mark followed.
If SK Wyverns is substituted in the equation of’selling a professional baseball team = management difficulties of a parent company’, it should be’selling of SK Wyverns = management difficulties of SK Telecom’, which is completely inconsistent with the current situation of SK Telecom.
It wasn’t that I didn’t have the money to run it, but I suddenly sold the baseball team. This has rarely happened in the Korean professional baseball game so far.
Then why was SK Wyverns sold? Before that, I must first examine the reasons why Korean professional baseball teams were founded.
The professional baseball team was founded for this reason.
As mentioned earlier, the birth of Korean professional baseball is closely related to the 3S policy of the Chun Doo-hwan regime. Therefore, it can be seen that the first-year members were the main motives (?) of the government’s pressure. Other reasons could be corporate social contributions.
In the first place, the goal of fostering elite sports in Korea(This is also part of the 3S policy of the dictatorship)The justification of’corporate social contribution’(Tribute of a company that took the fruit of the collusion)It is a long tradition that has been passed down as a custom to provide funding for the operation of businessmen to meet with the president of the association for all kinds of sports events, and the establishment of a professional baseball team also had similar causes.
Whether it was essentially to claim dictatorship or to really contribute to society, let’s think about what we believe to our liking.
‘The owner’s love for baseball’ is also indispensable. The owner of the parent company loves baseball so much that he creates and operates a baseball team, which is consistent throughout the history of Korean professional baseball from the 1980s to the present.
After NC Dinos won last year’s Korean series, the owner is as much talked about as a player than a player. CEO Taekjin KimIs the name of. The story of’Taekjin Lee’ that he founded a new club and has not spared full support so far because he is a reputable baseball fan is the latest example of the representative and warm’owner’s love of baseball.
▲ A couple of NCsoft’s CEO Taek-jin Kim and Song-i Yoon, who are watching baseball
As the governance structure of Korean corporations is so vertical in the past and now, the owner’s words at the peak boast a sense of weight that can be matched with the king’s’fish name’ of the Joseon Dynasty. Therefore, the story of the birth of Ryu’s baseball team is mostly based on facts,’The president of OOO, who loved baseball very much, started his own baseball team.
If you look at the purpose of establishing a professional baseball team from a management point of view, there can be a marketing reason… This was especially the case in the 1980s when the consumer goods industry became mainstream.
Haitai, Lotte, and Binggrae sold sweets and ice cream, while Samsung sold home appliances. OB was a mainstream company, and Cheongbo, who passed by for a while, sold ramen, so it was right to aim for a direct marketing effect through the operation of a professional baseball team. It didn’t mean that it used to be, but not now, it means that the expected effect was much greater.
Anyway, for these reasons, a professional baseball team was created and operated by taking their own stakes. Then, when the circumstances of the parent company’s wallet became difficult, they sold it. One conclusion we can draw from this is consistent with a fact that anyone who is interested in this floor knows.
Professional baseball team is no money
Writing. Professional baseball teams are not money. From the first year until now, the parent company that founded a professional baseball team has never made money by running a baseball team.
I checked the 2019 audit reports of 7 clubs excluding LG Twins, KT Wiz, and Kiwoom Heroes (for LG and KT, it was difficult to check the financial statements of the’baseball team’ only because the baseball team and the professional team of other sports were in the same corporation. Is the only club that operates independently without relying on the parent company).
The details were omitted, and as a result, the seven clubs recorded a small amount of surplus or deficit compared to the size of their sales. The important part here is not whether net profit is either a surplus or a deficit. What needs to be looked at is how much sales have been made to related party transactions, that is, to the parent company or companies associated with the parent group.
The eight clubs recorded sales of between 20 and 30 billion won in most related party transactions. Among them, there are clubs that have made almost all sales for a single corporation called SK Telecom, like SK Wyverns, and others have made sales for several affiliates in the parent group, such as Lotte Giants and Hanwha Eagles. Most of the sales to related parties are estimated to be’advertising’.
▲Lotte Giants’ related party transaction details / Sales of 25 billion won in 2018 and 20 billion won in 2019 to Lotte affiliates.
▲Samsung Lions has a gross profit of about 10.6 billion won by subtracting the cost of sales from sales. After subtracting the SG&A expenses, net income of 400 million won was generated. For reference, the sales of Samsung Lions to related parties in the same year amounted to KRW 24.2 billion.
Excluding related party transactions, the annual sales of the baseball team range from about 20 billion to 40 billion, and the amount of expenses they spend is between 40 and 60 billion. The advertising cost sales of related-affiliated companies are in charge of adequately filling the deficit of 20~30 billion won arising from this. After spending and earning money like this, it does not result in a surplus or a deficit, but a punctured amount is filled in the name of advertising expenses.
So, according to the low tide that can be heard, the club’s operating fund is sputtered according to the surplus of affiliates in the previous year. This is the point that enables a very reasonable doubt that you may not be spending advertising expenses in anticipation of a marketing effect corresponding to the cost from the beginning.
Whether or not the net income is profitable or negative in the financial statements is just a number game, and the domestic professional baseball team subordinated to the parent company does not have the ability to be financially independent. If so, let’s go back to the first question.
Why was SK Wyverns sold?
So why did you sell SK Wyverns?
Let’s lay down some of the premise we discussed earlier and think again.
In domestic professional baseball teams, the group owners have virtually all rights to run the club. And it costs money to run a baseball team. Rather than for the purpose of earning money, the team operates a baseball team to enjoy the owner’s individual will, nominal social contribution, and some marketing effect. However, the financial situation is not so difficult that SK Wyverns’ parent company suddenly sold the baseball team.
Then why did you sell it?
▲ Taewon Choi, Chairman of SK Group
It was sold by the owner of the owner, Tae-won Choi, because he wanted to sell it.
It is not known whether the reason for the’want to sell’ was that SK Group decided to expand investment in unpopular items rather than professional sports as recently revealed, or whether the owner’s love for baseball has suddenly cooled.
Is it because Shinsegae Group Vice Chairman Jung Yong-jin’s love for baseball surpasses himself? Or was it because the acquisition of the baseball team by Shinsegae Group would help the development of Korean baseball? No one knows.
However, the facts that can be deduced from the circumstances are that the sale of SK Wyverns was decided very suddenly, that it was a method of accepting the sale offer rather than expressing the intention to sell it first, and the final decision to proceed with the sale, the group owner, Taewon Choi This is the point.
Is the Korean professional baseball team the president’s luxury bag?
It seems that there is no intention to sell the baseball team even though they are in business difficulties due to unreasonable business expansion and receive public funding of trillions of won, and have retired thousands of employees for honor. Doosan.
Suddenly sell the baseball team in response to Shinsegae’s acquisition proposal. SK. The results are different, but the process is the same.
The fate of the professional baseball team depends on the’owner’s will’. If the owner wants, he can sell it at any time if he wants to hold the baseball team while supporting the group by pulling out the pillars.
Regarding this, Internet article comments and communities sometimes describe the operation of a professional baseball team as’the luxury hobby of the chaebol owner’ and’the chairman’s luxury bag’. Not only does it cost a lot of money to buy it once, but not only does it cost a lot of money to maintain it every year, but it is not just a luxury bag, but a Hermès-class luxury bag because no one can buy it because there is money.
It doesn’t mean that you lose money, but if you hold it, you can get it in one body and somebody raises it up, so it’s a more plausible metaphor.
I’m a luxury bag, can’t I escape?
After all, the problem is financial independence. As with all relationships in the world, the first condition is to eat and live on your own in order not to be swung unilaterally.
However, there are self-help words that I hear whenever such a story comes up. ‘It is practically impossible for a professional club to become financially independent in Korea’. This means that the population is small and fans don’t spend much money.
“When did you try it properly?”
Based on domestic professional baseball, HeroesExcept for, has any club ever tried to escape the financial support of the parent company? Even so, I wonder if there is a parent company that will allow such efforts.
It was made with money to exert influence, so as long as you hold it in your hand, you won’t be looking at it. However, there is a fatal trap that if such naturalness continues in this state, the day will always be threatened.
Now, the situation is very different from the 1980s when professional baseball was launched.
The marketing effect of’Donma’, which was expected from the operation of a professional baseball team, is also fading as time goes by. At that time and now, the scope of the stage in which companies operating professional baseball teams operate is different. There are more companies looking at the overseas market than the domestic market.
From the standpoint of companies that conduct marketing activities mainly in the domestic market, marketing methods have become much more diverse these days compared to the 1980s and 1990s. Running a baseball team is not an irreplaceable publicity channel, and it is not a very effective means for the current cost.
The more the chaebol owners went down to the ages of 2 and 3, the more they couldn’t guarantee that the owners loved baseball. It would be fortunate if the love of baseball was succeeded as well as in management, but if not, it wouldn’t be strange any time it was sold.
Spending money to run a professional baseball team isn’t a big problem for the parent company owner, but if the popularity of professional baseball declines, that’s a big problem. A luxury bag is a luxury bag that many people must recognize and look up to. As the days go by, the sights become more diverse. People are more sensitive to short content. The top class in this floor, the American Major League, is also worried about the popularity of baseball, which is slowing down.
Therefore, the future of professional baseball is too unclear to leave everything to the will of the parent company owner. It is not an option but a necessity to develop the ability to live by the baseball team.
Not with the will of the chairman, but with the support of the fans
The view of SK selling the baseball team was one of concerns, while the view of the acquisition of Shinsegae Group and Vice Chairman Jeong Yong-jin intersects with concerns and expectations. ‘Can Yongjin hyung be the second Taecjin hyung?’ Looking at the title of Ryu’s article, worries are ahead. You can’t just erase the impression that one luxury bag is being transferred to another’s hand.
Shinsegae’s ambition to merge a baseball field and a shopping space raises expectations a little in that it draws a plausible picture not only to use a professional baseball team as a corporate’signboard’, but to make it a direct and indirect sales base. Of course, it remains to be seen, and the limitations are clear in that it does not mean the financial independence of the professional baseball team.
As expected, the best direction is the path Kiwoom Heroes is currently on.(Heroes are the same as Heroes, but the noise is constant). A structure that can be operated with the income of the baseball team must be created. If necessary, you have to raise the admission ticket fee and change the free broadcast to a paid one. Of course, nonetheless, this is possible when the fans spend my money to watch the game and open their wallets to buy club-related products.
If there is someone who asks,’Who’s been watching baseball that way’, I’ll take a professional league from another country as an example. In Korea, there are people who buy a season pass and watch the NBA or major leagues. It may be true that it is not possible because it is not possible, but if it is impossible, it disappears. Just because it is a parent company affiliate of a professional baseball team, the reality that it doesn’t matter even though it earns tens or tens of billions of dollars for advertising each year is more ridiculous.
SK Wyverns, founded by acquiring Ssangbangwool Raiders in 2000, was sent off from the Korean professional baseball stage after twenty seasons. It can be said that the Incheon baseball team has changed so much that they just come and go, but it was a longer time than the 20 seasons played by the Haitai Tigers in time.
Although it is inevitable that Sammi becomes a Cheongbo and becomes a Pacific Ocean, and then passes through Hyundai and becomes a new world through SK, what is more regrettable as a fan is that the Superstars fan became a Pintospan and cheered for Dolphins. It’s about becoming a fan of another name.
As anyone said, if it is a professional sport that is just a ball game without fans, I want to become a fan of a baseball team that can be called by the same name anytime as long as the fans exist, who now trust their fate to the support of the fans, not the will of the chairman.
