Giving Football a Home

First published on Afshin Ghotbi's official website, Decemeber 31st 2012.

Part of the 2002 Japan / Korea World Cup legacy was a handful of spectacular stadia still familiar to supporters around the globe. Depending on where your country played you will still have one or more you can name. For Englander’s over a certain age it’s the Sapporo Dome and Ecopa Stadium which victory and defeat respectively burned into the public consciousness. But what of the country’s stadia prior to the biggest event in football? 

A self professed stadium nerd, checking off a new ground is almost as much of a highlight as the game I’m there to watch. So when I moved to Japan in 2003, I was in heaven. With a whole new country of unexplored stadia, at the first opportunity I made my way to the closest J. League venue. This happened to be Nihondaira Stadium, the home of Shimizu S-Pulse. A football-only ground nestled in the mountain range of the same name, the view beyond the pitch spread out over Suruga Bay to a snow capped Mt. Fuji. Perfect. 

Unique for the scenery, when the professional league kicked off in 1992 Nihondaira was in a minority of football specific stadia. At the dawn of the J. League there was one type of stadium which dominated the viewing experience, and it wasn’t a good one. As a minor spectator sport for decades before the pro game, football was housed mainly in municipal, multipurpose facilities. This meant every supporter’s worst nightmare. The running track. 

The lion’s share of stadia fell into this category with some remaining in use today. Shonan Bellmare, Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Kawasaki Frontale supporters all still have a hard time making out the far goal, separated from the action and often unprotected against the elements. However, the generic oval athletics ground wasn’t entirely dominant. A second small category of stadia existed and, as the fledgling league got going, steadily grew.

Shimizu’s rivals Jubilo Iwata, who joined the league in 1994, boasted the football only Yamaha Stadium. Kashiwa Reysol, another addition in 1995, brought with them the compact Hitachi Stadium, and while not to host a J1 game for some years, in 1996 and 1997 respectively, Tosu and Sendai cities constructed stadia which wouldn’t look out of place in England’s top flight. 

Kashima Antlers have won seven championship titles at the Kashima Soccer Stadium which, after major refurbishment in 2001, hosted several World Cup games. Which brings us to the third category of Japanese soccer venues; those built or improved for the 2002 event. In 2013’s J1 there will be nine venues either built with mind to, or expanded for, 2002. While not all dedicated football stadia, they are among the best you’ll visit. Airport style automated walkways out in the open air? They’ll transport you part the way between Aino Station and Ecopa Stadium. In-ground escalators? You can use them to reach the higher levels of the huge Saitama Stadium, and the venue of a World Cup final, the vast International Stadium, is a mere fifteen minute stroll from Shin-Yokohama bullet train station.

The 2002 tournament made vast strides in enhancing the spectator experience, which meant a greater chance of retaining casual fans swept up in World Cup fever. In a country traditionally dominated by baseball, football has often been knocked down the list of sporting priorities. Hiroshima city centre houses a major baseball stadium, while J. League champions Sanfrecce play half an hour out of town at a, you guessed it, multipurpose athletics ground. But as the J. League enters its third decade and football becomes more deeply engrained into the nations’ sporting landscape, the trend towards purpose built football grounds continues to gather pace. 

In recent years both Omiya Ardija and Cerezo Osaka spent considerable money on upgrading football-only stadia to J. League standard, despite large multipurpose venues available nearby. Cerezo’s J2 neighbours Gamba Osaka had in 2012 permission granted to construct a new football specific home away from their current Bampaku athletics stadium. Indeed, despite calling the picturesque but largely roof-less Nihondaira their own, Shimizu S-Pulse have expressed an interest in constructing a larger, more spectator friendly stadium to attract and retain fans in greater numbers. 

The once ubiquitous athletics oval, albeit in reduced number, may persist, but up and down the country the fan experience continues to improve. It might be true that uncovered grass banking can still be found at one top flight stadium, but the majority of those clubs still playing at athletics venues are committed, at least in the long term, to creating purpose built football grounds. In a nation where land is at such a premium, and large scale developments face many obstacles, this is heartening news. It displays loud and clear that the state of the game is strong, yet still growing. A situation surely befitting a country which boasts some of the noisiest and most colourful supporters in the world.