Major sports facilities attracting thousands of spectators have been found to have significant safety management gaps, including insufficient support for roof structures, poor rebar construction, and inadequate fire and evacuation systems. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has excluded an estimated 2,500 workplace sports facilities from safety inspections for nine years, while some local governments reported facilities as 'satisfactory' without conducting actual inspections.
The Board of Audit and Inspection released preliminary findings on October 21 regarding the safety management of multi-use sports facilities. The audit assessed the structural safety, fire and evacuation systems, as well as water and air quality management of these facilities.
According to the audit, the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul was found to have structural instability even at the reinforced roof truss connections. The Seoul Facilities Corporation confirmed that out of 466 roof truss connections, 23 exceeded allowable construction tolerances as of June 2024.
In a subsequent detailed safety assessment, the corporation was advised to reinforce both sides of the truss, but only one side was reinforced based on the contractor's recommendation. An evaluation by a specialized institution revealed that the stress on the reinforced connections ranged from 391 to 466 MPa, exceeding the yield strength of 292 MPa, indicating insufficient support.
Similarly, significant defects in the roof structure of the Jamsil Sports Complex remodeling project were not adequately addressed. A detailed safety assessment in 2021 found that out of 241 cantilever roof members, 75 had insufficient support, with 42 deemed unusable and rated as E-grade.
Despite this, the Seoul city government proceeded with a 518.2 billion won remodeling project without reinforcement, applying values lower than the wind pressure under open conditions without conducting wind tunnel tests.
At Incheon Munhak Baseball Stadium, damage to the roof-supporting steel trusses increased from one in 2021 to 50 by 2024. The city plans to conduct reinforcement work in 2028, coinciding with the relocation of the professional baseball team's home stadium, while recent safety inspections in 2025 and this year rated the structure as 'satisfactory' without repairs.
The Jeonju World Cup Stadium was found to have insufficient rebar construction in column brackets in 2016, but only 89 cracked brackets were reinforced, leaving the remaining 300 unchecked. A sample investigation by the Board of Audit and Inspection revealed that 24 out of 25 sampled brackets had insufficient rebar, with 13 also lacking support.
During a detailed safety assessment in 2022, the Seoul World Cup Stadium failed to account for the load of a 120-ton furnace installed inside the venue when evaluating structural safety. A re-evaluation that included the furnace load indicated insufficient support for the lower beams.
The safety inspection system itself was also found to be lacking. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism excluded approximately 2,500 workplace sports facilities with over 500 employees from safety inspections from 2017 to last year. Two local governments, including Mapo District, have not conducted safety inspections for sports facilities in the past three years, and Gongju City reported 279 simple sports facilities as 'satisfactory' without inspections.
At a soccer field in Pohang, which was excluded from safety inspections, seven defects, including wall cracks, were discovered but left unaddressed. Following the audit, in August, a ceiling stone fell at this venue, injuring a spectator and leading to the suspension of a K-League match.
Fire response equipment was also inadequate. Five facilities, including Gocheok Sky Dome, Seoul World Cup Stadium, Jangchung Gymnasium, a baseball stadium in Gwangju, and Jeonju World Cup Stadium, were found to lack generator capacity needed to operate fire and general emergency equipment, with a shortfall of up to 729 kW.
The absence of domestic standards regarding spectator evacuation times was also highlighted as a concern. While countries like the UK and FIFA set evacuation facility standards allowing audiences to evacuate within eight minutes, 20 out of 25 large sports facilities in South Korea did not analyze evacuation times during their installation.
Gocheok Sky Dome arbitrarily set the evacuation time at 50 minutes, despite analysis indicating that it would take 17 to 22 minutes for all spectators to evacuate, yet deemed the evacuation facility capacity as adequate.
Issues were also found in managing concert audiences. At seven indoor sports facilities, including the Olympic Gymnastics Arena, 33 performances had actual ticket sales exceeding the reported expected attendance by more than 10%, with some exceeding by as much as 70%.
Water quality in swimming pools and indoor air quality management were also found to be inadequate. A re-inspection of 22 swimming pools in the metropolitan area revealed that one pool in Yongin had E. coli levels exceeding standards due to neglected chlorine dosing equipment. Among the inspected pools, nine were found to have inadequate water quality due to insufficient residual chlorine.
At Gocheok Sky Dome, the use of special effects during performances raised the concentration of fine dust to an average of 407 µg/m³, exceeding the standard of 200 µg/m³, yet no corrective measures were taken. The Olympic Gymnastics Arena recorded fine dust levels soaring to 2,209 µg/m³.
The Board of Audit and Inspection stated that improving safety risks could yield benefits estimated at around 800 billion won, according to the Korea Construction Technology Institute. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and local governments are preparing preemptive measures regarding the structural defects and water quality issues identified in the audit.
This announcement is a preliminary result prior to the audit committee's decision, and the final audit results, including requests for action and measures for each institution, will be confirmed after the committee's deliberation.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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