Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Cho Kye Won, a member of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, will host a forum on adding handball to Sports Toto and pursuing sport-specific reforms at 10 a.m. on the 24th at the National Assembly Members’ Office Building, Room 1.
The forum is intended to explore government-level institutional support to help handball — once a standout at the Olympics and other international competitions — and other less-popular sports regain competitiveness and build a self-sustaining ecosystem.
Organizers plan to focus on adding handball as a new event to Sports Toto (the sports promotion lottery), aiming to boost public interest and diversify funding that has largely depended on government budgets and corporate sponsorships. The discussion will also examine ways to develop the sport into an industry, similar to baseball and soccer.
The event is co-hosted by Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee Chairman Kim Kyo Heung, committee secretary Lim Oh Kyung, and lawmakers Min Hyung Bae, Park Soo Hyun and Yang Moon Seok, along with Education Committee lawmaker Kim Moon Soo.
Cho is scheduled to deliver congratulatory remarks on securing the survival and public role of less-popular sports. Lim will lead discussions on policy and institutional reforms centered on the realities of the sports field.
Presentations will cover “Korean handball’s past and present” and “self-help efforts in the handball community, including the H League.” Professor Kim Dae Hee of Pukyong National University is set to propose a development model for less-popular sports that combines corporate investment with government policy support, under the theme “A Korean-style sustainable sports model and the government’s role.”
“Even though handball has produced the best results among Olympic ball sports, it has long faced the limits of being a less-popular sport, so it needs to be included in Sports Toto to secure stable funding and broaden its base,” Cho said. “We must build a structure that allows handball to move beyond simply maintaining the status quo and to become industrially self-reliant and grow sustainably.”
Lim said handball “has history and commercial appeal, is a major Olympic sport, and as a team sport best fits the fair and transparent operation of the sports promotion lottery,” adding that its inclusion in Sports Toto should be actively reviewed.
The forum is expected to draw Democratic Party lawmakers on the committee, officials from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation and the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, as well as representatives from the Korea Handball Association and the Korea Handball Federation, coaches and athletes.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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