Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday vowed to offer incentives to keep the La New Bears baseball team from relocating to Taoyuan County.
Chen told reporters during a baseball-related event in the city that she had talked to the team and sought to persuade its management to stay in Kaohsiung, by promising to increase the number of free shuttle buses between MRT stations and the team’s home field at Chengcing Lake (澄清湖) for fans during the baseball season.
Chen said she also promised to discuss renovation of the baseball field with the team after the city and Kaohsiung County complete a planned merger on Dec. 25, adding that the team could also take advantage of the city’s Lide Baseball Field for practice.
Chen made the pledges after the La New Bears managers allegedly said recently they would like to move their home field from Chengcing Lake to Taoyuan County’s Cingpu (青埔) because of financial difficulties.
Chen met La New chairman Liu Pao-yu (劉保佑) on Friday to express the city government’s concerns about the relocation.
The city’s Department of Sports told reporters after the meeting that Liu complained about Chengcing Lake Baseball Field’s transportation and parking space while hoping that the field’s facilities would be renewed.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator and the KMT nominee for November’s special municipality mayoral election Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) told reporters that Liu had told her that La New had spent NT$700 million (US$21.6 million) running the team and the field since the team joined the Chinese Professional Baseball League six years ago and suffered losses of NT$10 million per year.
Huang said the annual rent at Chengcing Lake Baseball Field was NT$3 million, while the field in Cingpu only costs NT$300,000, adding that this was among the reasons why the team was considering relocating to Taoyuan.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
RSS