Incheon to host 2014 Asian Games. Korea will host Asia Series

A bit late but Incheon is set to host the 2014 Asian Games. These games are the equivalent of the Commonwealth Games, in that they do have a high level of competition, but fall short of the Olympics. This is the first major sporting event Korea has hosted since 2002 when they hosted both the FIFA World Cup and the Asian Games in Busan (I mean major, not Gwangju Olympiad or Daegu track and field). It's great to have it up in Incheon too, a really cool city that always seems to get outshined by its proximity to Seoul (heck those of us outside of Gyeonggi-do usually lump it in with Seoul, I mean it's where the airport is :P). However it's a great city in its own right and this attention is probably a good thing. I was also happy to see it is being funded almost exclusively by local companies or Korean major companies with the tax payer only covering bridge and road upkeep or upgrades.

The other big(ish) sports news is that Korea will host the Asia series for the first time. This is the competition where the top teams from Asian baseball leagues play each other for the title of Asian champion. This year will have six teams with the champions from Japan, Taiwan, Australia, China and Korea competing as well as a second Korean team (for no apparent reason that I can see other than they are host country). It's certainly not a huge competition but it does offer the leagues a chance to gauge where they are with respect to other leagues in Asia (and if any of them are getting as good as the Japanese teams). Still, will be worth a weekend in Seoul I think.