Yongsan-gu to Significantly Expand Public Sports Facilities

16 Tasks Across 4 Key Areas, Half Are New Projects
Resident Priority Registration System to Begin in Second Half of Year

Yongsan-gu, Seoul (Mayor Park Hee-young) announced on the 20th that it will focus its administrative efforts to secure the ‘sports rights’ for all residents. Sports rights refer to the right to participate in and enjoy sports activities freely without discrimination in sports and physical activities.

The district recently established a comprehensive plan for the operation of public sports facilities in 2025 and finalized 16 tasks across four major areas: ▲expansion of grassroots sports infrastructure ▲creation of safe and pleasant facilities ▲increase in resident usage rates ▲accompaniment with socially vulnerable groups. Half of the 16 tasks are new projects.

The swimming pool at Itaewon Elementary School, newly opened in September this year. Provided by Yongsan-gu.

This year, the district will start operating the swimming pool at Itaewon Elementary School, the first public swimming pool in the eastern part of Yongsan. Last month, the district signed a joint business agreement with the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education’s Central District Office and Seoul Itaewon Elementary School regarding the district’s operation of the Itaewon Elementary School complex facility (Education and Culture Center), and plans to issue a design service order for facility improvements within this month.

The swimming pool is expected to reopen as early as September this year. The district has allocated 1.1 billion KRW from its budget for this purpose. The Central District Office of Education will also invest about 1.8 billion KRW to carry out mechanical equipment construction concurrently.

The district is also sparing no investment in improving existing aging facilities, including the Yongsan-gu Culture and Sports Center. It will invest 200 million KRW each in fire accident prevention projects for public sports facilities and in exercise equipment and environment improvement projects, and 50 million KRW for applying ‘universal design’ such as automatic door installation.

The district plans to revise the ‘Ordinance on the Installation and Operation of Sports Facilities in Yongsan-gu, Seoul’ in the first half of this year to establish a legal basis for ‘priority registration for residents at public sports facilities.’ This is in response to ongoing complaints demanding resident priority as competition for some programs (rentals) such as swimming and badminton intensifies.

A district official said, “Twelve autonomous districts in Seoul have already implemented a priority registration system for residents at sports facilities,” adding, “Our district will also push for ordinance revision in the first half and officially operate the system from the second half of the year.”

In addition to the resident priority registration system, the district will increase resident usage rates through various methods such as operating customized sports programs by facility, expanding park golf classes in community centers (from 2 to 13 centers), and producing various types of promotional materials for facilities.

For socially vulnerable groups, the Yongsan-gu Culture and Sports Center will provide exercise program vouchers (equipment Pilates, swimming, rehabilitation PT) for pregnant women and expand experiential events for disabled persons, children, and multicultural families in grassroots sports (basketball, soccer, swimming). The Wonhyo-ro Multipurpose Indoor Gymnasium will additionally open a youth basketball program.

Mayor Park Hee-young said, “The district is doing its best to ensure that all residents can enjoy exercise at reasonable costs close to their homes,” and added, “We will thoroughly establish and implement detailed plans for each project based on the comprehensive plan.”

Meanwhile, as a key pledge of the 8th local government administration, the district is promoting a ‘mid- to long-term development plan for expanding sports facilities.’ The district plans to increase the number of public sports facilities from the current 31 to 45 by 2035, adding 14 more locations.

By region, the plan includes ▲two multipurpose gymnasiums (comprehensive sports facilities) in the eastern Hannam living area (4.29 million m²) ▲three facilities including an outdoor futsal field, children (youth) sports center, and indoor tennis court in the western Cheongpa-Wonhyo living area (2.93 million m²) ▲seven facilities including an indoor futsal field and multipurpose gymnasium in the southern Ichon-Hangang living area (9.78 million m²) ▲two multipurpose gymnasiums in the northern Huam-Yongsan living area (4.87 million m²).

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