Taipei will move to invite a professional baseball franchise, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday.
“My wife is a fan of the [Chinatrust] Brothers and often asks me why Taipei does not have a professional baseball team,” Ko said, adding that he had agreed to look into the matter.
He said that the city government’s Department of Sports is considering several options, including establishing the nation’s fifth professional baseball team or inviting Taichung’s Brothers to return.
The Brothers, formerly known as the Brother Elephants, adopted Taichung’s Intercontinental Baseball Stadium this year, leaving New Taipei City and Taipei the only special municipalities without their own professional baseball team. The Brothers had previously held many of their games in New Taipei City’s Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium.
Ko added that the city would need to first resolve what kind of stadium could be provided to a team.
“The Tianmu Baseball Stadium cannot be used except on weekends and competitions are not allowed to go beyond 10pm, so there is a lot of restrictions,” Ko said.
He said the city still has to look into whether there is a venue where spectators can watch “to their heart’s content,” adding it is unreasonable to forbid overtime going past 10pm or to tell fans to keep their cheers down.
Department of Sports Deputy Commissioner Ting Jo-ting (丁若亭) said the restrictions were imposed by Tianmu (天母) residents when the stadium was constructed.
Taipei does not have any other large-scale stadiums, he said.
Ko said the issue was not “urgent” and would have to wait until the future of the Taipei Dome is settled.
The Dome, under construction in Taipei’s eastern district, was originally intended to serve as the nation’s first indoor baseball stadium. Its future has been up in the air since city allegations of safety violations last month, with the city calling for either the Dome or its neighboring shopping mall to be demolished.
Ko said controversy over the future of Novel Hall — a theater in Xinyi District (信義) — was another reason to delay negotiations with the Brothers.
The city has attempted to require CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信集團), which owns the Brothers, to guarantee Novel Hall will be preserved even after it sells the attached high-rise complex.
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