Our club also has 2 billion won in revenue and the rest of the expenses are supported by the parent company. Their (Day One) plan is not detailed, but it is confirmed that the parent company will support them, so I think they have fulfilled the conditions.”
The head of a professional basketball team said this in a phone call with Yonhap after attending the KBL board meeting at the KBL Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on June 24 last year.
At the meeting, Dayone Sports, which was launched by Dayone Asset Management, which acquired the Goyang Orion, to manage the team, was qualified as a member of the KBL.
It was a last-ditch effort after failing to dispel the KBL’s doubts about its financial capabilities at a board meeting held two days earlier.
DaeWon revealed the existence and size of its naming sponsor, and presented a letter of commitment from its parent company, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, that it would provide funds when needed.메이저놀이터
The ‘guarantee’ that the parent company would provide funds for the shortfall in operating expenses, as well as the naming sponsor contract worth 12 billion won ($3 billion) for four years, eased the directors’ doubts a bit.
The fact that such a guarantee was necessary is a testament to the fact that the existence of Day One Sports was a “first-of-its-kind event” that the KBL had never experienced before.
Until now, only major corporations have been involved in professional basketball. They have accumulated tangible assets through for-profit activities and used them to enter professional sports.
The KBL, which has been qualifying these companies for membership, is baffled by the curious challenge of Day One Sports, which was created solely for the “project” of running a team.
Dayone Sports ‘Stay tuned’
(SEOUL, July 28) By Lee Ji-Eun Reporter = Participants clap after taking a commemorative photo at a press conference for the founding of professional basketball team Goyang Day One at the KBL Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the morning of July 28, 2018. From left, Jeon Sung-hyun, Kim Kang-sun, Park No-ha, CEO of the company, Heo Jae, CEO of Sports, Kim Seung-ki, and Lee Jung-hyun. 2022.7.28 jieunlee@yna.co.kr
According to the corporate registration, which was verified by Korea Evaluation Data, a company specializing in corporate credit evaluation, Day One Sports has a capital of 1 million won.
The headquarters address is a basement room in an apartment in Gwanak-gu, Seoul. It is a different location from the office in Jung-gu, Seoul introduced on the website.
The survival of the entity, which has no “self-sustaining capacity,” and the stability of the system of 10 professional basketball teams, has been dependent on the will and conditions of the parent company from the beginning.
In April of last year, before Day One was launched, it became known through the media that Kim Yong-bin, chairman of parent company Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, was already under investigation by prosecutors for alleged violations of the Capital Market Act.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service’s electronic disclosure, the company’s cash assets were worth 1.16 billion won at the end of 2021. That’s down from 30 billion won at the end of 2015, and half of what it was the year before.
Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, the “backing” company behind the KBL’s decision to take on Day One Sports, has been struggling since the second half of last year and, contrary to its promise, has withdrawn from running the club.
Day One was faced with extreme financial difficulties.
In December of last year and January of this year, the company failed to pay local income taxes of about 7 million won in time and was placed on the public notice list of Gwanak-gu Office, which has jurisdiction over its headquarters. Since April of this year, it has also been behind on its local income tax payments by about 5.6 million won.
The organization hasn’t been able to pay its staff since January and its players since March.
It is understood that more than 1.2 billion won in wage arrears and more than 300 million won in payments to suppliers have accumulated.
What is the fate of Goyang Dei-won?
(SEOUL, June 16) Kim Joo-sung (center), head coach of professional basketball team Goyang Day One, attends an extraordinary general meeting held to decide whether to expel Goyang Day One from the Korean Basketball League (KBL) at the KBL Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on June 16. 2023.6.16 utzza@yna.co.kr
KBL says it was difficult to anticipate that the “parent company risk” would materialize.
A senior KBL official told Yonhap on June 16, “We thought that the naming sponsorship amount and the promise of support from the parent company would be a ‘safety valve,'” adding, “It was difficult to anticipate all the subsequent events based on the information about the parent company at the time. It was also not without the influence of CEO Heo Jae stepping in and convincing the directors.”
The KBL and DaeWon have been compared to Goyang City, which rejected DaeWon’s proposal to host a professional soccer team in September last year.
The official said, “It’s hard to compare. In soccer, it was possible to maintain the status quo by rejecting a proposal to start a new team, but here, the context was different because we had already finalized a purchase agreement with Orion.”
Unlike professional soccer, the risk of disrupting the 10-team system that has been in place since its inception meant that the league had to be more cautious in deciding whether to approve applications.
Professional basketball, which began as an eight-team league in 1997, expanded to 10 teams in the 1997-1998 season and remained a 10-team league until the 2022-2023 season.
When asked about the KBL’s slow response to the wage arrears, a KBL official said, “We accept it. We heard about the problem and wanted to contact the players early to investigate,” he said. “However, whenever we tried to do this, Day One reacted sharply, saying that we were interfering in the internal affairs of a private company.”
“We had to be careful because if it was confirmed that the KBL acted first and it became another controversy, it could be detrimental to the club’s acquisition negotiations,” he said.