SEOUL, Korea, Republic Of – Pyeongchang organizers have scrapped plans to stage the opening and closing ceremonies for the 2018 Winter Olympic outside of the host city.
Lee Jong-deok, South Korea’s minister for culture, sports and tourism, provincial mayor Choi Moon-soon and 2018 Olympic organizing committee president Cho Yang-ho met this week to decide whether or not to renovate an existing sports stadium in nearby Gangneung to stage the ceremonies or build a new facility in Pyeongchang.
The culture ministry later released a statement saying "the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies … will be built in Pyeongchang. After the games, the relevant parties will discuss how to make use of the facility."
The new Pyeongchang venue will have a capacity of 40,000.
South Korea President Park Geun-hye met with senior International Olympic Committee chief Thomas Bach in Seoul last month and agreed to closer co-operation between the federal government, the IOC and the local organizing committee.
The meeting was held just weeks after South Korean businessman Cho Yang-ho was brought in to take over the organizing committee as the replacement for Kim Jin-sun, who resigned suddenly.
Kim’s departure sparked media speculation that he may have been fired amid concerns about construction delays and domestic sponsorship problems.