More than 60 people are being investigated on suspicion of scalping tickets for the Asian Baseball Championship that opens tomorrow in Taipei, the Taipei City Police Department said on Thursday.
A total of 67 individuals were arrested by Taipei police from Nov. 24 to Thursday on suspicion of violating the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) by reselling tickets for profit, the department’s Criminal Investigation Division said in a statement.
The tickets were found to be resold at prices ranging between NT$1,000 and NT$4,700 (US$31.77 and US$149.32) each, mostly through social media, police said.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei City Police Department via CNA
About 90 percent of the 170 scalped tickets, which have been seized by police, were for the opener on Sunday between Taiwan and South Korea being held at the Taipei Dome, it said.
The investigation division said a Taoyuan resident was also recently detained for allegedly advertising tickets to the Asian Baseball Championship, as well as various music concerts on Facebook.
A raid carried out by the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s 3rd Investigation Corps on Friday last week found that the suspect had six tickets to the baseball event and 103 tickets for various music concerts.
The person is being investigated for suspected contravention of the Social Order Maintenance Act and the Development of the Cultural and Creative Industries Act (文化創意產業發展法), the division said.
According to Article 64-2 of the Social Order Maintenance Act, those who “[purchase] transportation or entertainment tickets with no intention to use and resell them for profit” may be detained for up to three days or fined no more than NT$18,000.
The police urged the public to report ticket scalpers and to refrain from buying tickets from unauthorized resellers.
The Taipei Dome, a new indoor stadium that is to host its first major international event, is to be the site of the tournament’s opener between Taiwan and South Korea.
Yet of the stadium’s roughly 40,000 seats, tickets for only about 17,000 are for sale, resulting in many people who wanted tickets to the opening game being left behind.
In other news, the Sports Administration intends to budget NT$300 million to upgrade four baseball stadiums across Taiwan.
The funding would be used to upgrade Rakuten Taoyuan Baseball Stadium, Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium, Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium and Tainan Asia-Pacific International Baseball Stadium, Sports Administration director-general Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) said.
All four stadiums are used by clubs in Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League.
“The pro baseball stadiums have reached the point in recent years where they have to be upgraded, and the government is investing a lot of money in this,” Cheng said on Thursday, adding that the program is focused on giving players quality fields and optimizing the fan experience.
The proposed funding is part of a NT$6.4 billion program put forward by the Sports Administration to improve Taiwan’s sports environment by revamping the sports facilities of cities and counties across Taiwan.
Funding for the facility enhancement project is part of the overall funding requested by the Sports Administration in the central government 2024 fiscal year budget, which has yet to be approved by the legislature.
The NT$300 million funding for the four pro baseball stadiums is to go toward improving infield and outfield grass and stadium lighting and drainage, the Sports administration’s Sports Facilities Division head Tsai Wen-chuan (蔡文娟) said.
It would also cover work on the stadiums’ outfield seating, locker rooms and bathrooms, Tsai said.
Once the overall central government budget for next year is approved, it is hoped that the project could be completed within two years, a Sports Administration official said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and