Enter the Dragon: Yongin's gorgeous stadium | OneFootball

Suwon Samsung's end-of-season transition to Yongin Mireu has begun following the 2-1 win over FC Anyang. The club has temporarily shifted from Big Bird to a stadium that definitely exists but isn't even featured in most stadium databases. What is Yongin Mireu Stadium and why had I just recently heard of it?

Opening in late 2017 at $219,000,000, Yongin Mireu Stadium is the newest ground to host professional men's football in Korea. In 2019, six AFC Women's Champions League games were held in Yongin, and the Korean National Women's team has pitched up three times. On Monday, one of Korea's great clubs,Suwon Samsung, brought FC Anyang down for the latest installment of the Original Clasico.

Mireu is the Korean translation for a dragon, but is rarely used as the Sino-Korean form, yong, is far more common. And this is presumably what they were thinking with the structure's unique and, frankly, breathtaking roof design.

The metallic roof begins over the grandstand and sweeps behind the goal to the Main Stand. Here, it reaches its highest point before rapidly descending over the stadium concourse. It doesn't join up with the beginning location meaning a small proportion of the stadium is uncovered. It isn't a wave-like display so I'm convinced the architects had a dragon's tail in mind when they made their blueprints.

All images from instagram.com/groundhopkoreafc

Whatever their intentions, the end result is superb.

Metallic grey is Mireu's dominant color but the clash with the upper tier blue seats is stunning. Even the running track (unfavorable in most conditions) is blue. The Bluewings could hardly have dreamt of a better replacement ground, and one that is just 14 km northwest of their clubhouse is even more favorable. The simpler option would have been a return to their former home, Suwon Stadium, where they enjoyed the majority of their success. Yongin Mireu was a left-field choice but the right one.

It is a stadium that is fit to host top-flight (or, in Suwon's case, K League 2) football. Suwon Stadium is fit for demolition. Despite its remarkable appearance and its location 12 km from where I work, the first I heard of Mireu was April 2023 when the Korean women's national team announced a pre-World Cup friendly against Zambia. Sensing an opportunity to register a new stadium visit on Futbology, I checked it on Google. The jaw dropped.

The view from the media seats.

The Zambian friendly was played on a cold midweek evening. The crowd was small and nothing was for sale. You got to see the beauty of the ground up close but it felt like a terrible decision by the KFA to host the fixture here when football-specific stadiums with modest capacities were available. As I took my photos, I kept asking myself the same question.

How had I never heard of this beautiful ground so close to work?

And it wasn't just me. Days before South Korea vs. Zambia, I had to e-mail the creators at Futbology and inform them of the match and the stadium where it was taking place. Their database didn't include Mireu and when you zoomed into the map, there was nothing but green fields and rural Gyeonggi countryside where the ground existed. I sent the coordinates and stock images of the stadium.

I wonder how surprised they were to learn their massive database didn't include a stunning 37,155-capacity multi-purpose stadium. Do stadiums like this slip through the net regularly, or is it only in Korea where a city could have a futuristic stadium that few people have even heard of?

StadiumDB boasts having a database of over 2,100 stadiums, but there's no mention of Mireu in the South Korea subsection. Likewise, World Stadium, which arranges stadiums by alphabetical order, is missing Yongin's gem by the reservoir.

Mireu is located next to the EverLine, connecting Giheung with Korea's most popular theme park, Ever Land. But it doesn't have a stop, even though it sits roughly halfway between two stations - Samga and Chodang - that are 2.5 km apart. Perhaps if a team moved in here permanently, Mireu would be the 16th stop of this line.

As it is, the ground feels isolated and hidden. The roads and carpark approaching the stadium are either under construction or, more likely, are not going to be finished. There's a huge cliff on the east side which bizarrely shadows the ground from the surrounding roads.

The away fans penned into the side corner near the bird poo.

Inside, the stadium is exactly what you might expect. There's lots of plain concrete walls, toilets, yellow security tape barring access to certain places, and whilst the acoustics are good, they are always too loud. Does a substitution need to be accompanied by ear-bursting nonsensical music? Is it not enough to announce who's off and who has come on?

Also, due to a lack of use, years of dust have accumulated on the seats, stairs, and tables. Combined with the ridiculous humidity meaning we were drenched in sweat, the dust from the media tables turned clothes, skin, and the laptop filthy. I saw fans in the expensive table seats running down to the store to buy wet tissues to clear the table tops before eating chicken.

In the corner near the away end, birds must love congregating in that vast open space as the corridors and seats were covered in bird poo. None of these issues are particularly tragic, of course. But they speak about a ground that's largely vacant throughout the year. The club probably should have made some effort to dust down the seats but maybe that's part of the Yongin charm now.

It would take minor adjustments to turn this idle ground into one of the best facilities in Korea. Perhaps remove some of the upper tier seats, make safe-standing sections behind both goals, and change the color scheme to represent a future new tenant. But let's be honest; a new club, like Yongin City FC, are never going to attract 30,000 fans so the ground will just stay the way she is.

As for the game, Suwon prevailed 2-1 despite a late rally from the visiting Anyang team. There were only 8,000 people inside but the noise was fantastic. Both sets of fans should be applauded for creating a top class atmosphere in a stadium that was 1/4 full. Suwon are never going to fill Mireu in the second tier, but more fan-friendly games would certainly help. This game really should not have taken place on a Monday night,

Every city in Korea has one multi-purpose stadium and the vast majority look similar with a capacity between 20-30,000. The bowl-shaped ground with no roof, tall floodlights, one big screen, a running track, and dust hiding the interesting seat colors. From K League 1 to K7, a huge number of teams call these places home. Think Gimcheon, Gangwon, Cheongju, Cheonan, Paju, Dangin, Changwon, etc.

The second-half umbrella display.

There are exceptions, like Hwaseong, and now Yongin Mireu. But what does the future hold for Dragon Stadium? A permanent resident would be ideal but what's the point in opening the gates for 1,000 fans as is common in the lower leagues? Unless the K League can get a club to relocate, Yongin will always be a giant white elephant with a spectacular design hemorrhaging money for the regular upkeep of the abandoned palace on the Everline.