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The story
The Japan-South Korea women’s soccer semifinal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games was held on September 29 at Ecopa Stadium in Shizuoka, with Nadeshiko Japan winning 2-0 to advance to the final. But the stadium, which holds around 50,000 people, drew a crowd of just 998. Although the match fell on a rainy weekday, the conspicuously empty stands behind the victory became a hot topic on 5ch. The thread saw comments lamenting the low turnout, observations that other Asian Games events were similarly sparsely attended, and questions about the organizers’ management and promotion efforts, sparking discussion from many angles.
The women’s soccer semifinal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games was held on the 29th at Ecopa Stadium in Shizuoka, where the Japan women’s national team, “Nadeshiko Japan,” defeated South Korea 2-0 to reach the final. Despite the rain, it was the forlorn scene in the stands that became the talk among fans.
It was a Japan-South Korea match played in the rain, and what caught fans’ attention was the stadium’s turnout. Ecopa Stadium holds roughly 50,000 people, but between the rain and the low attendance, the venue looked sparse and desolate. Official attendance came to 998. Viewers watching the broadcast on streaming service U-NEXT voiced their disappointment online.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
This'll be a massive deficit, paid for out of Nagoya taxpayers' pockets.
Meanwhile companies and politicians are laughing all the way to the bank, skimming their cut off the top.
people don't even know the event is happening.
Just getting there is a hassle.
Feels like a kindergarten recital.
If they'd properly rounded up the players' relatives and coworkers, it wouldn't have dipped under 1,000.
This is probably a tournament even the players' own connections can't be bothered to attend.
and the overseas organizers likely don't care about ticket revenue anyway.
Apparently a fair number of tickets were bought up by sponsor companies, but nobody's actually using them to show up.
And it's a Japan-Korea match, no less.
Aichi Prefecture should sort it out themselves.
Have any of you ever been to a women's baseball game?
Just picturing it is depressing.
Isn't that supposed to have the best natural grass pitch in Japan?
The national junior high soccer final pulls in about 2,000, counting spectators and school staff.
It's rough that even Japan's own matches are just flat-out empty.
Apparently the men's side is just as bad.
It made the news for being empty.
Something like 7,000 for the match against Taiwan.
Today's Lotte vs. Rakuten — an unpopular matchup, on a rainy weekday no less — still pulled 25,000.
And that's out in Tohoku.
What's even the point of watching two Pacific League bottom-half teams whose standings are already locked in?
Can't be done — they're thoroughly scrubbing out any ads from companies that aren't official sponsors.
Maybe it'd work if you personally volunteered to take down all the ads up in Vantelin Dome's rafters for free, then put them right back once it's over.
The promotion was way too thin.
Honestly, before it even started, plenty of people probably didn't know the Asian Games were happening at all,
let alone that they were being held in Japan.
Fair.
When did this tournament even start?
How long does it run for?
Is it annual, every other year, every four years?
No idea — it feels like it just appeared out of nowhere.
Background and key points of this discussion
The Asian Games is a quadrennial multi-sport event bringing together countries and regions from across Asia, with this edition hosted in Aichi-Nagoya. In the thread, commenters pointed out that low attendance wasn’t limited to women’s soccer — men’s soccer and other events were also sparsely attended — suggesting the issue lies less with women’s sports specifically and more with a broader lack of publicity and weak event management across the Games as a whole. At the same time, some pointed to unfavorable scheduling (rain, a weekday) and differences in ticket-distribution systems compared to larger events like the Olympics that involve major advertising agencies, meaning no single cause fully explains it — a point that split opinion in the thread. The 5ch reaction alone can’t reveal the actual state of promotion and publicity efforts, but the stark gap in attendance across different venues and sports has emerged as a shared issue for this year’s Games.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Sad News] Japan’s Women’s Soccer Asian Games Semifinal Draws Just 998 Fans in a 50,000-Seat Stadium wwwwwww.”
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