Day 13: Seoul World Cup Stadium and Museum

I decided the night before to go and visit the 2002 Seoul World Cup Stadium and Museum.  The stadium wasn’t a place I initially planned for and thus did not have it on my itinerary thinking there probably wasn’t much to see other than an empty stadium.  The more I thought about it however, the more I wanted to check it out because the World Cup represented such a fond recent memory among Koreans, including myself.  During the 2002 World Cup, I remember feeling the enthusiasm and support the people of Korea gave to the National team all the way in Toronto.  At that time, my non-Korean friends always made comments about how crazy and passionate the Korean fans were as they saw them on TV.  I can’t imagine what it was like to actually be in Korea and Seoul during that time.  I work in an area with a Korean population so I could also see and hear the local support pouring on to the streets of Toronto after each gut wrenching win on their way to the quarter finals.  I still remember taking a vacation day from work so that I could see Korea play live in the wee hours of the morning.  Subsequent World Cups were fun and exciting to watch but nothing compares to the memories from the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan.

I had instructions and information about the stadium in my Lonely Planet book so I used that as a reference to get there.  I took Line 3 from Dongnimmun to Yeonsinnae and then transfer to Line 6 and took that down to World Cup Stadium Station.  When I got off at the Station, it was decorated in support of the local Seoul FC which I believe uses the World Cup Stadium as their home field.

The Subway Station is located to the North-East Side of the Stadium.  Compared to the coolness that was yesterday, today’s temperatures were back to their usual warmness with the sun’s ray feeling as hot as ever.  I left the station and walked over to the stadium.  As I walked around the Stadium following the signs to the Museum on the other side, I found that they converted parts of it into other facilities.  There was a multiscreen movie theater, a Home Plus store which is a like large grocery store and also a gym/sports center that included a golf driving range and swimming pool all within the stadium.

Entrance to the Stadium and Museum was super cheap (less than a dollar) and there was virtually no one else there so I pretty much had the entire place to myself!  The first part of the museum takes you through the history of Korean football from the beginning and how it evolved over the years.  There were numerous items on display such as old jerseys, balls and shoes from the early days of the National Team.  Each World Cup and the story how how well the Korean team did were displayed in words and pictures and you can see the improvements the National team made with each passing World Cup.
The next part of the museum was the highlight for me which was the actual stadium as I had never seen an actual soccer field before.  The stadium and field seemed like it was in excellent condition as if the World Cup just ended yesterday.  The field looked smaller in person when compared to seeing one on TV or in pictures.  They were playing soccer inspired songs over the speakers and I was almost free to go anywhere in the stadium except on to the field.  The music was upbeat so I tried to picture what a stadium full of passionate Korean fans would be like.

I made my way down to field level and stood at the center line and also made my way up to see the stadium from the press and the luxury boxes also.  While I was out visiting the stadium, I received a call from my mom that my cousin had come over to visit and meet us and to come back quickly if I could.  As a result, I still finished seeing the rest of the stadium but now with a little sense of urgency.  I went back down to the player entrance and down into the locker room areas which were all open for tourists.  In addition to the locker rooms, there was a turfed equipped room for practicing, meeting rooms, massage rooms, and strategy rooms with drawing boards.

The next section was dedicated solely to the 2002 World Cup.  There were various memorabilia on display such as the contract signed by FIFA awarding the World Cup to Korea/Japan, balls, jerseys and shoes worn by Ahn Jung-Hwan during the games.  My favourite area was this section that did well in capturing the people and the sea of red I saw on TV.

The final section of the museum was the souvenir shop that sold jerseys and various items from the 2002 World Cup.  Considering that I never initially planned on visiting the Stadium and Museum, I was pretty happy that I had the chance to see the field in person.  As my Seoul trip went on, I noticed that I started taking less and less pictures and more video instead.  I felt like videos could capture more of what I saw and more accurately represent what I wanted to say than pictures could.  Playing back what I saw for myself and family always seemed much more more fun in video form than in picture form also.  As a result, here are a collection of clips I took from the Stadium and Museum.  Enjoy!

If there was one thing I wished from the museum, it would be for a larger presence or section focusing on the more recent World Cups and the on-goings of the current National soccer team.  I know that the museum is called the 2002 FIFA World Cup Museum for a reason but it felt slightly like it was trapped in time and I think it would serve the museum well to evolve and now focus more on the current state of Korean soccer.

There were a couple of parks nearby that I thought about visiting but because my cousin was waiting, I headed straight back to my aunt's…