The ‘basketball president’ was effectively ‘impeached’ by the KBL.
The Korean Basketball League (KBL) held a board of directors and general meeting at the KBL Center in Nonhyeon-dong, Seoul at 7 a.m. on the 16th to remove Day One Sports as a member.
At the meeting, it was confirmed that the KBL passed an agenda stating that ‘Heo Jae, the CEO of Dayone Sports, is not authorized to be the head coach or representative of KBL clubs in the future’.
Several general managers who attended the board meeting said, “The board of directors passed a motion to disallow Mr. Heo Jae from being approved as a general manager and representative of KBL clubs in the future.”
In other words, Mr. Heo is disqualified from being the owner and representative of a KBL team in the future. Even if another team wanted to hire him as a manager, the KBL would not approve it. This was a punishment for those responsible for the Day One incident.
On this day, Park No-ha, the general manager of finance, and Heo Jae, the general manager of operations, did not show up. Only CEO Jung Kyung-ho was present, called in, and issued a statement.
In the statement, Day One Sports said, “Our financial difficulties began when our parent company, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, went bankrupt around November,” and “In the process of raising the second subscription fee of 1 billion won at the end of March, we injected too much money, and the players’ wage arrears continued to pile up.” It also said, “I am truly sorry to Mr. Heo Jae, who readily accepted my proposal and took over as the owner of the Day One Jumpers because he loves basketball. Due to financial difficulties, I could barely pay him the promised salary, and he told me to use the money for player-related expenses. Also, whenever there was a negative issue with the basketball team, Mr. Heo took the blame for it instead of me, the financial representative, because of his position as the owner. Although I (Park No-ha) am resigning from my position as CEO, I promise to continue to make my best efforts to pay the unpaid wages, even if it takes some time, regardless of the shareholding structure of Day One Sports and legal battles.
Day One Sports, which acquired the Orion basketball team last year, has basketball president Heo Jae as its co-chairman and general manager of operations.
After receiving Lee Seung-hyun’s free agency compensation (1.2 billion won) and Lee Dae-sung’s trade compensation (600 million won), Day One Sports failed to pay its KBL membership fee of 500 million won on time just before last season. The team was separated from its parent company, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, due to business difficulties, and the team’s salaries began to fall behind. This year alone, the team has been overdue for more than five months, and has not paid its secretariat staff, suppliers, and the cost of acquiring Orion. So far, it is estimated to be around 3 billion to 4 billion won. Last season, the team was unable to pay the second installment of the KBL subscription fee of 1 billion won on time until just before the playoffs.
Dayone Sports is a special purpose corporation (SPC) established by Dayone Asset Management to operate sports teams. The company was acquired in 2021 by Kim Yong-bin of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering. The company was in serious deficit and did not have the ability to manage a men’s professional basketball team, which costs at least 6 billion won per year. In short, Dayone Asset Management and Dayone Sports themselves were insolvent companies with little capital. There were many suspicions about their financial status, and many issues were raised. At the inaugural media day, Mr. Heo said, “I can’t explain our financial situation in detail. However, contrary to concerns, there is no need to worry about our financial status.” Park No-ha also said, “The financial plan for the next four years has been finalized.메이저놀이터
The KBL’s board of directors reviewed the process of Day One Sports and reportedly decided that “measures to hold Day One Sports CEO Park No-ha and CEO Heo Jae responsible for the unpaid wages of the players are necessary. The KBL first took steps to revoke Heo’s credentials, and is also planning to take legal action against the team for unpaid wages.