"I will build a domed stadium befitting the status of a special city with 1.07 million residents."
Jung Myung-geun, the Democratic Party's confirmed candidate for Hwaseong mayor in the June 3 local elections, has pledged to construct a large domed stadium in Gyeonggi Province's Hwaseong. While no specific size has been mentioned, local expectations are that it would exceed the scale of Gocheok Sky Dome (16,000 seats), Korea's only domed stadium. Yet Hwaseong has no professional baseball team, only an independent league club, the Hwaseong Koryo.
Ahead of the local elections, politicians are rolling out large-scale social overhead capital (SOC) pledges—domed stadiums, K-pop venues and the like—that could cost up to trillions of won. Because the pledges are crafted to stir voters rather than reflect reality, projects riding the popularity of professional baseball and K-pop are being copied and pasted across regions. Political observers have criticized the trend, saying, "Along with cash handouts dressed up as populist pledges, these are essentially vote-buying with money."
Domed stadium pledges in particular are appearing repeatedly in this election across party lines. Major candidates including Jun Jae-soo (Democratic Party) in Busan, Kim Tae-heum (People Power Party) in South Chungcheong, Kim Young-hwan (PPP) in North Chungcheong, and Lee Won-taek (Democratic Party) in North Jeolla have all put forward dome stadium pledges. Rep. Jeon Hyun-hee of the Democratic Party, who lost the Seoul mayoral primary, pledged to dismantle the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) and build a "Seoul Dome" in its place.
Though such projects cost hundreds of billions to trillions of won—daunting even for metropolitan-level governments—they resonate so strongly with local voters that basic-level municipal candidates are also floating them. Beyond Hwaseong, Park Seung-won (Democratic Party), the incumbent Gwangmyeong mayor seeking re-election, has proposed a 40,000-seat dome arena for sports and concerts. Baek Kyung-hyun, mayor of Guri, and Lee Beom-seok, mayor of Cheongju (both PPP), have also pledged domed stadiums. Some in political circles question how regions without a resident pro team or major concert demand can ensure business viability, when even Seoul's Gocheok Dome is running deficits. As a patch, each candidate has naturally added a pledge to attract a professional baseball franchise.
Pledges for massive concert venues riding the K-pop wave are also abundant. Jung Won-oh, the Democratic Party's Seoul mayoral candidate, has declared plans to build a K-pop arena on unused land in Seoul's Sangam-dong to attract large numbers of tourists. Busan Mayor Park Heong-jun, countering Democratic candidate Jun Jae-soo's pledge for a retractable-roof dome at the North Port, has proposed a 20,000-seat K-pop arena in Yeongdo-gu. After South Chungcheong Governor Kim Tae-heum preempted the field with a multipurpose dome pledge, Democratic Party candidate Park Soo-hyun countered with a K-culture arena near a GTX station.
With similar pledges pouring in simultaneously across the country, the large-scale civil engineering projects that recur every election cycle almost look grounded by comparison. Democratic Party candidates in Busan, Ulsan and South Gyeongsang have jointly promoted the "Bu-Ul-Gyeong Megacity" pledge, which was effectively scrapped under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, claiming that "35 trillion won promised by the central government vanished when the megacity plan was dismantled." In Daegu, candidates from both parties are championing the Daegu-Gyeongbuk (TK) new airport project. But Daegu's annual budget is about 11 trillion won, while the TK new airport's estimated cost reaches 30 trillion won, making progress impossible without central government support. Rail and road pledges recycled every season, critics say, also mostly end as empty promises.
Even when large-scale SOC projects are pushed through, they frequently end up becoming problems themselves. The Alpensia Resort, built around the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, is a prime example. Despite total project costs of 1.6 trillion won, the complex was sold after debts exceeded 1 trillion won. Gangwon Province's Yangyang Airport, which received 350 billion won in investment, has so few flights that it is widely cited as a representative "ghost airport." In a 2024 survey of urban experts by the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice, the World Scout Jamboree, Legoland and the Gadeokdo New Airport project were named among the "worst urban development and public projects."
Figures in politics and the development industry say large-scale development pledges are not inherently bad, but warn that failures could accelerate the deterioration of already strained local finances, calling for rigorous vetting at the pledge stage. Hong Sung-geol, a public administration professor at Kookmin University, said, "At first glance, one might think pumping money out stimulates the economy, but the liquidity released into the market could create enormous inflationary pressure. Rising prices push up interest rates, which in turn leads companies to cut jobs, triggering a vicious cycle."
