Wanju-gun Tennis Court, Funded with 6.6 Billion Won of Public Taxes, 'Gathering Dust for 2 Years!'

Despite having 16 courts, no tournaments have been held since December 2019...
Contrasting with Sunchang-gun and others hosting tournaments while complying with COVID-19 prevention measures

[Wanju=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Kim Han-ho] The tennis courts in Wanju-gun, built with 6.6 billion KRW of taxpayers' money, have not hosted any tournaments for two years since December 2019, failing to be utilized for their original purpose.

Wanju-gun claims that holding tournaments has been difficult due to COVID-19, but considering that other regions such as Sunchang-gun in Jeonbuk and Gimcheon-si in Gyeongbuk have been successfully conducting various tennis tournaments under strict quarantine measures, criticism of 'waste of taxpayers' money' seems unavoidable.

Wanju-gun constructed tennis courts with 16 international standard courts in August 2018, spending a total project cost of 6.6 billion KRW.

The county expressed ambitious plans to develop the area into a new 'tennis mecca' by hosting nationwide tennis tournaments and serving as a training site for various tennis teams through the construction of the tennis courts.

However, the utilization of the tennis courts since completion has been at its worst.

Since the completion of the tennis courts, Wanju-gun has hosted only two nationwide tournaments with player participation: the '99th National Sports Festival' in October 2018 and the 'Presidential National Tennis Tournament' in August 2019.

Additionally, from November 23 to 24, 2019, the 3rd Moak Cup National Amateur Tennis Tournament was held.

Since then, until November 24 of this year, no nationwide championships or amateur tournaments have been held for two years.

In response, Wanju-gun explained that it did not attract nationwide tournaments to prevent group infections due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

They also stated that the courts have been open regularly since February 17 this year for local amateur players.

However, other emerging tennis hubs such as Sunchang-gun in Jeonbuk, Yanggu-gun in Gangwon, Gimcheon-si and Andong-si in Gyeongbuk have continuously held world or nationwide tournaments despite the COVID-19 situation.

Sunchang-gun, which has a total of 22 courts including 14 hard courts and 8 clay courts within the public sports complex, hosted the '2021 ITF Sunchang International Junior Tennis Tournament' from March 28 to April 4, followed by the '56th National Junior Tennis Championships' in July. In October, Sunchang-gun held the 'National Residents Sports Festival' and the '32nd Jeonbuk Workplace and Amateur Tennis Tournament.'

Yanggu-gun in Gangwon also held the '65th Jang Ho-hong Jong-moon Cup National Junior Tournament' in October and the '32nd Korean University Tennis Championships' in November this year, following last year.

Gimcheon-si in Gyeongbuk conducted the '2021 ITF Gimcheon International Junior Tournament' in April and the '76th Korean Tennis Championships' in October, while Andong-si hosted the '2021 ITF Andong International Junior Tennis Tournament' for eight days starting from the 6th of this month.

Despite the difficulties in holding tournaments due to COVID-19, these local governments thoroughly complied with quarantine guidelines by conducting COVID tests for players and officials, disinfecting before and after matches, and closely cooperating with tennis associations to successfully hold the tournaments without disruption.

A representative from the Sunchang-gun Sports Promotion Office said, "Preventing COVID-19 infections related to tournament hosting is the utmost concern," adding, "We conduct fever checks for players and officials on match days and carefully manage quarantine measures during the tournaments."

Moreover, Wanju-gun has been spending about 85 million KRW annually on operating costs such as personnel expenses, electricity bills, and equipment, despite not holding any tournaments for one and a half years.

Regarding this, a representative from the Jeonbuk Tennis Association criticized, "Using COVID-19 as an excuse after investing a huge budget to build tennis courts is like covering the sky with your palm," and added, "If they are not going to hold any tournaments for two years, it is hard to understand why they pushed forward with the construction despite initial criticism."

Wanju=Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Kim Han-ho stonepeak@asiae.co.kr

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.