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The story
With the Hiroshima Carp languishing in 4th place at 17 games under .500 and attendance sagging, reporting points to the pre-modern management structure centered on the Matsuda ownership family — rather than the players’ “zombie cigarette incident” itself — as the real driver of the team’s decline. On 5ch, criticism of the front office was joined by talk of GM Kiyoaki Suzuki’s future and calls for a sale, but some pushed back with actual attendance figures, arguing it “hasn’t dropped as much as people think” — turning perception versus hard numbers into the main point of contention.
9/29 (Tue) 14:00 — Koko Yakyu Dot Com (high school baseball news site)
With Japanese pro baseball nearing the postseason and the pennant races in both leagues largely settled, one nagging irritant that just won’t go down easy is the Hiroshima Carp’s performance this year.
This season the Carp have struggled far more than preseason expectations suggested, sitting in 4th place at 17 games under .500 as of September 28. Attendance has plunged too, and the “Carp Girls” craze that once swept the nation has all but vanished.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / original article here
What people said
Unless they shake off that Showa-era image, baseball's just going to keep declining.
Soccer's Sanfrecce Hiroshima spend money to win titles — a win-at-all-costs front office that still moves rationally while successfully developing young talent.
Baseball's Carp, meanwhile, are weak but won't reinforce the roster — it's just status-quo family management.
Mikitani (Rakuten owner Hiroshi Mikitani): "Yeah, yeah."
Banning outlets that write critical articles? Come on, this is an era where anyone can publish online — that doesn't fly anymore.
Don't try to cover it up.
So honestly I couldn't care less about the whole zombie-cigarette thing — they can arrest the lot of them for all I care.
None of it matters until they change the owner.
That logic is seriously broken.
If they put the team up for sale, a buyer will show up.
For Carp fans, they probably wouldn't mind even if it became the "Hiroshima Abema Carve" or the "Hiroshima Mixi Carp."
It's painfully anachronistic at this point.
Their handling of this whole zombie-cigarette incident is the clearest proof of it.
A rotten organization with zero self-correction, where nobody takes responsibility.
Selling the team is the only option left.
If there's ever a protest outside the Matsuda residence demanding a sale, count me in.
And yet, back in 2023, former owner Matsuda killed a domed-stadium plan and talks about it like it's some heroic tale.
That's Owner Matsuda for you.
"Absolutely Not to a Dome" — Hiroshima's Owner Fiercely Opposed It Despite Harsh Criticism, Insisting on Natural Grass
2023.02.14
https://full-count.jp/2023/02/14/post1337031/
because it's a fact that the zombie-cigarette issue was known about well in advance and warnings had already been issued internally…
Sounds like the teams below the Carp are in even worse shape.
They can't even manage something like Central League TV, and they don't stream games — the image is so bad I wish Oisix would just take over as the team's backer instead.
They're weak AND apparently the zombie-cigarette thing left a ton of empty seats on top of it.
But there are lots of empty seats.
If fewer people are buying food and merch at the stadium…
Surprisingly, yeah, it really hasn't dropped that much.
• Sept 4 (Fri) vs Giants: 27,566
• Sept 5 (Sat) vs Giants: 32,317
• Sept 6 (Sun) vs Giants: 28,993
• Sept 11 (Fri) vs DeNA: 27,315
• Sept 12 (Sat) vs DeNA: 31,567
• Sept 22 (Tue, holiday) vs Giants: 32,362
• Sept 23 (Wed, holiday) vs Giants: 32,286
• Sept 24 (Thu) vs Giants: 19,883 (about the season's lowest)
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The Matsuda family has owned the Hiroshima Toyo Carp since the club’s founding and has long held a firm grip on its decision-making. The players’ recent “zombie cigarette incident” was itself an individual act of misconduct, but reporting frames it not as an isolated scandal but as one symptom of a closed-off team culture — pointing, for instance, to the practice of banning media outlets that publish critical coverage. Within the thread, pushback emerged against the general impression that attendance has “dropped,” with posters citing actual September attendance figures to argue it “hasn’t fallen as much as people think,” underscoring the risk of describing reality based on gut feeling alone. The discussion also touched on then-owner Matsuda’s past decision to scrap a domed-stadium plan, tying questions about facility planning amid now-routine extreme heat to broader doubts about the team’s management structure.
*This article is compiled as excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Sports News+) thread “[🧟] The Carp’s Decline Isn’t About the “Zombie Cigarette Incident”! The Key to Rebuilding Is Breaking Free From Owner Matsuda’s Pre-Modern Team Management.”
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