Only a month ago, BTS were officially appointed as the ambassadors of the 2030 Busan World Expo. It was then announced that the group is slated to hold a free concert in Busan to push for the city’s bid as the host for the World Expo.

But since then, there have been multiple unfavorable developments, the recent one being the city of Busan’s refusal to pay for the concert.

In early August, some media houses announced that HYBE Labels had agreed to hold the concert for free, despite there being no official clarification from the company. A few days later, HYBE released a statement confirming that it would be a free concert indeed.

Many fans saw it as a red flag since it appeared that HYBE was almost pressurized into agreeing to this. An ARMY shared that: "This is exactly what the gov wants. How much do u wanna bet these articles are meant to pressure hybe & bts. Article mentions free concert, everyone gets excited, asks why not a free concert, puts hybe in a bad spot, government potentially doesn't have to pay & gets away with it"

The next controversy was the venue. The Busan Metropolitan Government announced that the concert will be held at the Busan Port International Passenger Terminal Outdoor Parking Lot. The venue was deemed highly impractical by the public since it didn’t have the required infrastructure to handle a footfall of 100,000 people.

Additionally, it was speculated that this decision was influenced by the Mayor of Busan, Park Hyung Jun, who owns land in the area and stood to benefit from such a huge surge of traffic there. Eventually, the concert location got changed to the Busan Asiad Main Stadium.

Not stopping there, the next concern arose when the Busan Metropolitan Government announced that neither the city nor the expo committee had the funds to pay for the concert. They emphasized that HYBE should cover the costs by finding alternative sponsors or in the absence of sponsors, BTS and HYBE will bear the entire cost.

According to industry experts, given the popularity and scale of a BTS concert, this concert could cost about 7 billion KRW (about 5.10 million USD). This makes ARMYs feel extremely angry because of the organization of the concert.

ARMYs were already concerned about the ongoing issues regarding the concert, and now many are angered by what appears to be a constant effort on the government’s side to milk out BTS’s impact for their own agenda:

- Think of the concert like a baby right. A baby that busan begged for. HYBE has been doing all this work baby proofing and Busan hasn’t really done anything. HYBE is like “damn can you pay for something at least?” And Busan said, “it’s your baby.”

- it's weird. Why Busan Metropolitan Government state and Busan expo unwilling to pay?

- They’re EXPLOITING the heck out of Hybe and BTS. They should withdraw from this if they can

- It's weird why South Korea govt. Happening it when can't even afford the concert why putting all pressed on Hybe n bts like it the way to making their reputation on world level. Have to see what hybe decides on this point 

- Busan uses the name BTS to win the show but basically BTS itself is always in the spotlight and news about busan plans is always negative so obviously it will spread all over the world, is busan not thinking that way? they treat bts badly just like opening their own disgrace.

- The Busan Government invited them to be ambassadors, asked them to perform for free, and now can not even pay for concert requirements and wants BTS (via HYBE) to pay for the concert. WTF

So far, HYBE has revealed that they intend to invite other companies to participate as official sponsors of the event, but they have yet to reveal any names. Major Korean conglomerates such as Samsung, LG, Lotte and SK have stated that they have not received any sponsorship offers and that they are not inclined to cover those costs either.

Apparently this is an event within the framework of World EXPO 2030 and BTS even performed for free to promote the event. But all expenses for promoting and organizing concerts are borne by HYBE and BTS instead of the government. This is a complete misunderstanding.