The Hsinchu Baseball Stadium has a faulty drainage system and its surface is unsafe for players, a report released yesterday by the Hsinchu City Government found.
Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and the city government commissioned US landscaping services company BrightView for on-site inspection and analysis reporting.
BrightView, an MLB field consultant company based in Pennsylvania, was brought in for an inspection and soil analysis as an “impartial third party,” Kao said.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
The ballpark reopened in July last year after major renovation under former Hsinchu mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
If the stadium’s “surface layer becomes compact and dry it becomes excessively hard. This condition creates an increased risk for player[s] to field contact injuries,” said the BrightView report that was released yesterday, adding that the situation is “making the field slow to drain and unplayable during wet periods.”
“The composition of this material does not meet general standards for professional, high school or parks and recreational infield mix design. The ratio of sand, silt and clay does not comply with industry standards for baseball infield mix,” it said.
The inspection and subsurface analysis were necessary, after numerous problems and injury to several players when the stadium, home to the Wei Chuan Dragons, held two CPBL games July last year, the city government said.
First opened in 1976 for use by schools, amateur teams and semiprofessionals, the venue then hosted games for professional clubs when Taiwan’s top-level CPBL baseball circuit started in 1990.
The Hsinchu City Government drafted plans for renovation in 2017, for which Taoyuan-based Gigabest Construction Co secured the contract and commenced work in 2019, with funding from both central and local governments. The budget for stadium construction was NT$870 million (US$27.4 million), with an additional NT$320 million budget for its underground parking lot.
The city government in 2019 handed the execution of renovation work and supervision of contractors to Ting Hsin Group, owner of the Wei Chuan Dragons.
After releasing the report, Kao and TPP members requested that Hsinchu prosecutors launch an investigation into the Lin administration’s role in the stadium’s faulty renovation.
However, some sports experts and baseball fans attributed the problems to the main contractor Gigabest Construction, and Ting Hsin Group’s two subsidiaries, for not complying with stipulations and requirements in the project agreement.
Prosecutors yesterday said they have been collecting evidence and following developments, adding that they have already interviewed witnesses and persons of interest.
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