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The story
On August 30, Akita City Mayor Numaya shared his view that development of Blaublitz Akita’s new stadium is premised on “securing private funding,” and that “the club should take the lead going forward.” In the 5channel thread, while Akita City has already pledged roughly 3 billion yen, commenters pointed out that of the 5-6 billion yen the club is supposed to raise, it hasn’t even secured the initial 500 million yen needed for design work. Discussion also compared the case to public funding for Kashima City and Mito Hollyhock, and raised questions about fairness compared to baseball stadium development, with opinions split.
ABS News Akita
August 30
2026
Source: youtu.be / Original article here
What people said
Not really. It's just that Akita's getting attention, so it's all J.League talk all the time.
Akita's main sponsor is a construction company.
He's just stating the obvious.
Akita City should take the lead itself.
It's the city's asset, isn't it?
It's a money-losing outfit that's never turned a profit, yet tax money just keeps getting poured in.
Akita City has already stated it'll put up about 3 billion yen, and in exchange the club is supposed to raise 5-6 billion yen from sponsors and the like — that's already been decided.
And right now they haven't even scraped together the initial 500 million yen needed just for the design.
Akita just won't let it go, since J.League talk is the only thing that gets them any attention.
It's the J.League team that won't let it go.
Why not just disband already?
Then have the J.League build it on their own.
Don't lean on local government.
Low aspirations.
Ibaraki's a soccer prefecture.
Akita's a baseball prefecture — that's the difference.
That project's purpose is public works to keep the rail line running.
The goal itself is completely different.
They support it because they see real value in a sporting event that draws over 20,000 people every time in the Kashima (Rokko) area.
If Akita's Soyu Stadium could consistently pull in over 10,000 fans per match too — at least on par with Yamagata — that'd make a much stronger case.
Objections raised over public funding for J1 Kashima's new stadium! Mito sponsor: "Just 37.6%"
Wild that 63% of fans come from outside the prefecture lol
A lot of Antlers supporters come from Chiba, Tokyo, and Saitama too.
It's simply because it's the "Chibaraki" area — the Tone River side of Chiba counts as a "friendly town" too.
They actually tried to get that area included as home territory, but the J.League turned it down, so it's treated as a friendly town instead, and fans come from there.
Since it's neighboring Chiba, lumping it in as "from outside the prefecture" isn't quite right.
And on top of that, national subsidies are coming too.
Way worse than Jungleia (the controversial Okinawa theme park project).
And the J.League wants places like this built all over the country, not just in Akita.
So you're bashing METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), which has professional sports development written into its growth strategy.
That sports-promotion push includes baseball too, you know.
The Cabinet Secretariat has apparently shifted to viewing J.League stadiums as particularly lacking in public benefit, so it probably won't be pushed as hard going forward.
Same as Cool Japan.
Wasted money gets criticized.
Only natural.
soccer really is nothing but a nuisance to the sports world.
Meanwhile local governments fight over hosting baseball's farm teams.
They're not hijacking anything — that's exactly why they're playing in Kitakyushu.
Of course track-and-field stadiums don't want any sport other than track and field.
They're also bulldozing two grounds where ordinary citizens and amateurs play soccer just to build a new J.League stadium — the J.League is basically the enemy of soccer itself.
And on top of that, they trashed Hanazono No. 2 (the rugby ground they were originally meant to use), making it unusable — then played a "home" game for free in Kitakyushu and handed spectators 15,000 yen each.
Well, there's been no progress, and the mayor's already spelled out exactly how much the city will cover.
Nothing moves forward from here unless Akita Blaublitz's side comes up with several billion yen more.
It's basically over.
You can already see the ending coming: the club can't raise the money, and that's that.
Do you really want to make Akita that unappealing a prefecture, that unappealing a city? And if you can't cover maintenance costs, don't get people's hopes up in the first place.
https://www.city.akita.lg.jp/shisei/iken/1003645/1004655/1050295.html
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The J.League’s club license system sets stadium standards, and clubs that fail to meet capacity and facility requirements face restrictions on future promotion and similar matters. Akita City has already committed to providing roughly 3 billion yen of the new stadium’s construction costs, on the premise that the club raises the remaining 5-6 billion yen from private sources — but as the thread pointed out, the club hasn’t even secured the initial 500 million yen needed for design work. Where opinions in the thread split was over where to draw the line on how much public money local governments should commit, with many comparing the case to Kashima City and Mito Hollyhock, while others raised questions of fairness relative to baseball stadium funding. The fact that the city has already committed a set amount is easy to miss outside of the point raised in comment #45, and the notion that “Akita City hasn’t put up anything” isn’t accurate.
※This article was compiled by excerpting and summarizing the 5channel (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “[Soccer] Steps Toward New Stadium Development — “Private Funding Is the Prerequisite,” “Blaublitz Akita Should Take the Lead Going Forward” — Mayor Numaya Shares His View.”
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