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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (8147)	7/12/2008 12:08:49 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 24235

No Night Baseball Games to Save Energy? By Park Si-soo Staff Reporter With oil prices skyrocketing, the government is seeking ways of minimizing energy consumption. Half of the vehicles belonging to government agencies nationwide have stopped operating. A growing number of private firms are joining in the energy-saving campaign as oil prices are expected to rise for years to come. But here is a gas-guzzling facility nonchalant to the energy crisis: ``the baseball stadium.'' On Tuesday 6:30 p.m., six lighting towers in Jamsil Stadium in southern Seoul, began shining over the 30,000-seat baseball field. More than two thirds of the seating was empty yet it was bright enough to play the game without artificial light. Beginning at 6:30 p.m., the match between LG Twins and Doosan Bears was over at around 10:00 p.m., and the lights remained turned on for another 30 minutes to clean the venue. The stadium consumed 3,120 kilowatts (KW) of electricity that night alone, according to the game management office. Given a household consumes an average of 500 KW a month, the ballpark used the same amount of electricity that a household can use for more than six months in only four hours. ``Personally, I think a night game consumes too much electricity,'' said Suk Eung-man, a manager of facility operation team. ``But we have no choice but to follow the schedule issued early this year by the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO).'' Of the 126 games scheduled for Jamsil Stadium in 2008, 94 percent or 118 matches are night games. And more than 700 night games will be held at seven pro-baseball venues across the country this year. ``Except for matches of some popular teams, this facility is almost empty. It completely wastes electricity. To save energy, KBO should advance the time,'' said Park Bi-ho, who watched the Tuesday match, at the site. But it's not an easy job at all, a KBO official said. ``KBO cannot change the time arbitrarily since it requires mutual consensus of baseball teams, stadium operators and other relevant organizations. In addition, with the mercury hovering over 30 degrees Celsius, playing in the daytime would be hard for both players and spectators,'' said Lee Il-jae, a general manager at the stadium. ``Baseball is not only a sport but also a profitable business. Nobody would visit the stadium to watch games if baseball is played under the sultry sun.'' Early this week, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism delivered a letter calling for restricting night games to KBO. But KBO did not show any sign of participating in the energy-saving campaign. ``As of now, we won't consider changing the game schedule,'' said Chung Geum-jo, a KBO general manager. ``If this energy crisis continues, however, we may consider changing.'' The official said playing fast largely contributes to saving energy. The Japanese league introduced rules leading players to play faster for the first time this year. Under the new rules, only two minutes and 15 seconds is given to change positions of offense and defense. Changing the pitcher must be completed in three minutes and 15 seconds. In addition, the Japanese league adopted various timesaving regulations, resulting in shortening the average game time to three hours and six minutes this year from the previous three hours and 18 minutes. pss@koreatimes.co.kr koreatimes.co.kr