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“You need 100 million won to cover team dues, 200 million won for college admissions, and 300 million won to play in the pro league.”

Parents of student baseball players in South Korea have been whispering amongst themselves regarding the rising cost of supporting their children’s baseball careers. A case in point: if a young athlete starts playing baseball in the fourth grade, their parents will have spent 100 million won (US$85,000) in basic team dues alone by the time the athlete is a high school senior.

One can even hear stories of parents selling real estate in Gangnam District — one of Seoul’s most coveted and highly valuated areas — in order to afford their child’s baseball career, a testament to the growing cost of private baseball education and the heightened barriers student baseball players face in order to follow their dreams. In modern-day South Korea, young athletes cannot pursue the sport without their parents’ financial support. Here are some of the reasons baseball has become such a money-sucking business in South Korea.

After public calls for student-athletes to be guaranteed the right to learn, schools have begun allotting less time to group training. At high schools with elite baseball teams of 50 or so players, what this means is that field managers and coaches are unable to provide one-on-one instruction to their athletes. Under such circumstances, student players who find themselves on the bench more often than not are bound to be neglected during group training sessions. This creates an environment in which athletes who feel the need for more individual training end up going to private baseball academies during weekends and school breaks out of anxiety.

A retired baseball player who started his own baseball academy in 2017 said during an interview with the Hankyoreh, “When I first started, there weren’t that many baseball academies out there. Athletes would come for lessons without telling their field managers, but nowadays, it’s hard to find a student-athlete who doesn’t get private lessons, and those who don’t get lessons feel like they’re falling behind.”

Moreover, the clientele for private baseball lessons is getting younger than ever, with student-athletes patronizing private academies from the time they’re in elementary school. It’s also become trendy to get lessons from one academy after another to pick up different techniques from different private coaches.

Private baseball lesson fees amount to 1.5 million to 2 million won a month on average (US$1,200 to US$1,800). For parents who pay school fees of 700,000 to 1 million won a month in contributions to the school baseball team their child is a part of, this extra expenditure is doubly burdensome. If, on top of this, parents want to hire private tutors for subjects like English and mathematics so that their children don’t fall behind in academics, the financial cost becomes staggering.

A parent of a student baseball player about to enter high school said, “I pay 800,000 won per month towards the field manager and coaches’ wages and 300,000 won per month towards kids’ snacks and transportation costs for a total of 1.1 million won per month. Add to that the 6 million won per person required for winter field training, which comes down to 1.5 million won a month. Plus, I pay extra for private baseball lessons and math tutoring.” The parent added that they estimated they must have spent around 100 million won on their child for baseball from sixth grade to ninth grade.

Because of the high cost of supporting their children’s baseball careers in South Korea and in order to open up options for their children’s future, many parents turn their attention to opportunities overseas — that is, they send their children to locations like Florida on “baseball English study abroad” programs.

An industry professional who’s also a parent of a high school baseball player said, “I heard that [parents send] children to Japan or the US to open up career trajectories in interpretation, agenting, and front office management. Study abroad agencies specializing in such opportunities are sprouting up as well.”

With the private baseball academy boom, former pro athletes are taking an interest in opening their own private academies rather than transitioning into coaching in the pro league, the starting salary for which is around 50 million won a year.

The private academy route guarantees a monthly income of 10 million won or more; plus, one can enjoy more free time and pursue other opportunities like creating YouTube videos or making television appearances. Several TV commentators are known to be currently considering opening private academies in their names. However, with too many industry professionals vying to open up their own academies and dozens of private academies mushrooming in the Gangnam District of Seoul alone, the market for private baseball lessons is already well saturated, with supply long exceeding demand.

Within such a competitive atmosphere, some turn to inappropriate tactics to boost their track record. Former Hanwha player Lee Yeo-sang is one example. Lee was arrested in 2019 for violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act after selling and even injecting anabolic steroids to youth athletes attending his baseball academy in order to enhance their performance. Athletes who were permanently banned from the pro league for their unlawful actions have been known to change their names to open up their private baseball academies as well.

The rise of private baseball academies has other problems as well. With the emergence of close connections between certain schools and private academies, field managers and coaches at some schools are bluntly demanding that their student-athletes attend so-and-so baseball academy to receive instruction.

Another problem is when coaching styles differ on the field and during private lessons. One amateur field manager said, “Some players get confused. At private academies, instruction is one-on-one and tailored, so the coaching style may feel different.”

Another industry professional said, “Schools don’t have cutting edge equipment like TrackMan and Rapsodo, but private academies do. Parents and student-athletes are very well informed these days, so the coaching style encountered at schools may feel a little old.”

Some point out that because private academies mainly train fielders to hit and pitchers to throw, other basics like defense and base running are falling by the wayside. Because players train single-mindedly to enter the pro league or earn college admissions during their private lessons, they are neglecting to practice basic skills required in baseball.

One commentator said, “Some private coaches teach kids with conviction, but others only see their students as cash cows,” lamenting, “Nowadays, you need money in order to play baseball.”

With the number of days student-athletes are allowed to participate in training for tournaments being reduced, student baseball players and their parents are looking for alternatives to at-school training outside of school. The private education boom in baseball won’t be going away any time soon.

By Kim Yang-hee, staff reporter

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