Dongdaemun Stadium was a

sports complex A sports complex is a group of sports facilities. For example, there are track and field stadiums, football stadiums, baseball stadiums, swimming pools, and Indoor arenas. This area is a sports complex, for fitness. Olympic Park is also a kind ...

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

and included a

multi-purpose stadium A multi-purpose stadium is a type of stadium designed to be easily used by multiple types of events. While any stadium could potentially host more than one type of sport or event, this concept usually refers to a specific design philosophy tha ...

, a baseball park and other sports facilities. It was located near

Dongdaemun Heunginjimun, literally "Gate of Rising Benevolence" or more commonly known as Dongdaemun, is one of The Eight Gates of Seoul in the Fortress Wall of Seoul, a prominent landmark in central Seoul, South Korea. The Korean name "Dongdaemun" means "Gr ...

or Great East Gate. The surrounding Dongdaemun market had many vendors selling athletics-related goods. It was demolished in 2008 to make way for the

Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park The Dongdaemun Design Plaza, abbreviated as DDP, is a major urban development landmark in Seoul, South Korea, designed by Zaha Hadid and Samoo Architects & Engineers, Samoo, with a distinctively neofuturistic design characterized by the "powerful ...

History

Construction on the main athletics stadium and baseball field began on 24 May 1925 and was opened for use on 15 October 1925 as

Gyeongseong Seoul has been known in the past by successive names, including Wiryeseong () and Hanseong (Baekje era), Bukhansangun (Goguryo era), Hanyang (North and South states period), Namgyeong (, Goryeo era), Hanyangbu (Goryeo under Mongol rule), Hanseong ...

Stadium. The venue was the main center for sports events in the city, and along with Kirim Stadium in

Pyongyang Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...

, it was one of the two venues used in the Gyeongsung-Pyongyang inter-city

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

tournament in the 1930s. The stadium was the location for mass celebrations of the end of Japanese colonial rule, as almost 250,000 citizens gathered at the venue on 15 August 1945, to celebrate the liberation of the peninsula. Additional construction was undertaken in 1962 to modernize the two existing venues as well as to create a swimming pool, volleyball courts and soft clay tennis courts. Floodlights were added to the baseball venue in 1966 and to the athletics venue in 1968 to allow for nighttime sporting events. Before its demolition, the athletics stadium was used as a flea market where all types of both new and second hand goods were sold. It formed part of the massive Dongdaemun shopping district, which had been active for 57 years.

Facilities

Football

The main

remained the main center for sports events in Seoul until the

Seoul Sports Complex Seoul Sports Complex ( ko, 서울종합운동장), also known as Jamsil Sports Complex ( ko, 잠실종합운동장), is a group of sports facilities in Songpa-gu in Seoul, South Korea. It was built for the 1986 Asian Games and 1988 Summer Olympi ...

was built for the

1988 Olympic Games 1988 Olympics refers to both: *The 1988 Winter Olympics, which were held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada *The 1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul ...

. It was the home venue for the

South Korean national football team The South Korea national football team (; recognized as Korea Republic by FIFA) represents South Korea in men's international football and is governed by the Korea Football Association. South Korea has emerged as a major football power in Asia ...

from the 1950s to the late 1980s, though it continued to be used into the 1990s until the last international match was played there, against

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

in 2000. The 30,000-seat main stadium also hosted some

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

matches including the quarter-finals at the

1988 Summer Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

and many matches of the

Korea Cup The Korea Cup ( ko, 코리아컵 국제축구대회) was an international football tournament held annually in South Korea from 1971 to 1999. History The Korea Cup was created with the name President's Cup Football Tournament ( ko, 박대통 ...

, an international football competition.1988 Summer Olympics official report.
Volume 1. Part 1. pp. 202-3. The inaugural match of the K League, the first professional football league in South Korea, was held at the athletics venue on 8 May 1983. Ilhwa Chunma (currently

Seongnam FC Seongnam () is the fourth largest city in South Korea's Gyeonggi Province after Suwon and the 10th largest city in the country. Its population is approximately one million. Seongnam is a satellite city of Seoul. It is largely a residential cit ...

LG Cheetahs FC Seoul ( ko, FC 서울) is a South Korean professional football club based in Seoul that competes in the K League 1, the top flight of South Korean football. The club is owned by GS Sports, a subsidiary of GS Group. They play their home game ...

(currently FC Seoul), and

Yukong Elephants Jeju United Football Club (Hangul: 제주 유나이티드) is a South Korean professional football club based in Jeju Province that competes in the K League 1, the top division in South Korea. In the past, the club has been known as the ''Yuko ...

(currently Jeju United FC) were based at the stadium until 1995, but with the

decentralization policy in K League The K League decentralization policy in 1995 was a policy of moving K League clubs located in Seoul to other regions. It was an effort by the Government of South Korea and the K League Federation to increase popularity of football nationwide befor ...

, they relocated away to their current stadiums in 1996.

Others

The inaugural match of the

Korean baseball league The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO; ko, 한국야구위원회) is the governing body for the professional leagues of baseball in South Korea. The KBO was founded in 1981 and has governed two leagues: the KBO League ( ko, KBO 리그) and KB ...

was held at

Dongdaemun Baseball Stadium Dongdaemun Baseball Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium in Seoul, South Korea. It was used mostly for baseball games. The stadium held 26,874 people. The stadium was built in 1959 and was demolished in 2007, along with the Dongdaemun Stadium. It ...

in 1982.

Notes

References

Stadium of dreams in K-League : 동대문 운동장

External links

World Stadiums
{{Coord, 37.56758, 127.010595, display=title, format=dms, type:landmark_scale:3000 AFC Asian Cup stadiums Athletics (track and field) venues in South Korea Defunct football venues in South Korea Demolished buildings and structures in South Korea FC Seoul Jung District, Seoul K League 1 stadiums Multi-purpose stadiums in South Korea Olympic football venues Sports venues completed in 1925 Sports venues demolished in 2008 Sports venues in Seoul Venues of the 1988 Summer Olympics Venues of the 1986 Asian Games