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The story
The Akita mayor’s remark that “we need to verify whether the estimated number of general-use days [for the new stadium] really holds up” regarding Blaublitz Akita’s new stadium plan has become a hot topic on 5ch. The thread also cited a survey showing that, amid steep water rate hikes and cuts to public facilities in Akita City, 47.6% of residents said they’d be willing to pay only up to 100 yen (roughly 65 cents) more in taxes for it. Opinions in the thread split over how to secure funding, and over whether the mayoral election result can really be read as “public opposition to the stadium.”
What people said
Is this guy some kind of J.League hater?
Of course he has, it was his campaign pledge.
'No stadium' is the will of the people.
Lol that's short by about three zeros.
Of course they're going to scrutinize it when they're being asked to pour huge sums of city tax money into it.
Why should tax money go toward a facility that's just for some pro sports business anyway?
What about the economic impact?
Akita's done for without facilities that draw in outside visitors anyway.
Does the J.League really pull in that many outside visitors though?
There are only about 20 games a year, and depending on the opponent, away fans can number under a thousand.
Oh, there's already a plan to build a big data center, so we're fine.
That won't create jobs though.
If that doesn't count, the J.League's even worse then.
They're not going to hire anyone anyway.
Piling impossible demands on the operators, like "go raise the money yourselves."
What is this, the Tale of Princess Kaguya? (she famously gave suitors impossible tasks to drive them away)
People are starting to quietly sense this is just a search for reasons not to build it.
Why does it have to be Akita City building it in the first place?
It's the J.League and Blaublitz making the unreasonable demand here — telling a cash-strapped municipality to build it.
C'mon 😅 it's Akita's team, right?
It'd be weird if they played out of a stadium in Naha.
Think about it for a second.
Are J.League players civil servants or something?
At this rate it just becomes an argument that Akita doesn't need a team at all.
???
It's not a club run by the city, what are you even talking about?
No, the money's actually there.
There's so little money they're even decommissioning prefectural roads.
"First Hike in 31 Years, Average 32% Increase — Why Did Akita City Go Through with a Major Water Rate Hike? The Water Utility Crisis Driven by Population Decline, Aging Infrastructure, and Rising Prices"
'The money's there' 🤔 what is this guy even saying
Don't start spouting nonsense about civil servants.
Whose tax money do you think paid for your school and the roads you use?
They're just trying to do the obvious thing — use everyone's taxes to make everyone happy.
So the people of Akita Prefecture are saying it won't make everyone happy, which means it's unnecessary.
End of discussion.
Prefecture residents are political amateurs though.
The question is which is more credible — that, or experts saying it'll make people happy if they build it.
This exact kind of condescending attitude is precisely what people hate.
Since it's tax money, of course you can't ignore voters' wishes, and if it's for the public good, the obvious first step is persuading residents and building understanding.
You can't just skip that and expect "we're building it for you, so be grateful and pay up" to fly.
Prefecture (city) residents be like: "But you guys don't even pay taxes in Akita, you don't even live here."
Akita Prefecture, the local business community, and the club have all done their best up to now.
That should be enough.
Anyone who disrupts Akita's unity and drags others down should step aside immediately.
As someone born and raised in Akita City, I find this shameful, but it can't be helped.
Let's look for another path that doesn't rely on Akita City taking the lead.
It's not just the prefecture and the club, the two of them alone.
Momentum is building day by day.
A train that's already left the station can't be stopped.
Let's rally the combined strength of everyone connected to Akita and make the new stadium happen, no matter what.
We will never give up.
https://x.com/8uo5hmedwq4vbas/status/2026266808983126213
A wonderful aspiration.
Well then, how about you put your own money up?
Stadiums don't get built on good intentions.
That'd be a total win for Akita City.
You're covering the land costs too, right?
How much additional tax would you be willing to pay for the stadium?
100 yen (~65 cents): 47.6%
This isn't "only 47.6% of prefecture residents are willing to pay 100 yen." It's a survey where 2,060 households were split into 10 groups, and of the roughly 206 households that were actually presented with the 100-yen figure, 47.6% agreed. And it's from March 2025, before the current project proposal even existed. Cherry-picking the number like that is just misleading.
Lol, even a measly 100-yen barrel donation (a common street-collection method at Japanese sports events) gets rejected by half the city's residents.
If it were the Carp in Hiroshima, like 80% of people would toss in 100 yen lol
And the will of the residents who gave this mayor a landslide win was 'no stadium' to begin with.
A mayoral election is a vote on city governance as a whole, not a referendum on the stadium specifically. "The mayor won, therefore opposing the stadium is the will of the people" is a stretch.
Not even willing to pay 100 yen for soccer — that's the will of the people in Akita right there.
I'm an Akita City resident, and the stadium issue was literally the central issue in this mayoral election.
In Nagasaki, the parent company funded it themselves to the tune of 100 billion yen.
Sounds great.
Akita should just do the same thing then.
But then the club stops belonging to the citizens and becomes just like pro baseball.
It's either cooperate with the municipality, or have a company own it outright — and companies willing to do that are rare.
Lol, calling it "the citizens'" when it's a private company.
So if they win a championship, are the prize winnings split equally among the citizens? No, obviously not.
Lol, suddenly pivoting the Nagasaki example over to baseball.
Background and Key Points of This Debate
Underlying this debate is a structural issue: for regional clubs, building a home stadium tends to be directly tied to municipal finances. In Akita City, tight finances were already in the spotlight — water rates were hiked by an average of 32%, the first increase in 31 years — and cautious voices dominate when it comes to taking on extra costs for a new stadium. The thread split over whether the mayoral election result can be read as “the will of the people opposing the stadium,” with some pointing out that a mayoral race is a vote on city governance overall, not a single-issue referendum. There was also a correction to the survey result cited as “47.6% willing to pay only 100 yen more” — it turned out to be a partial sample survey from March 2025, taken before the current project proposal was even presented, a reminder to be careful about how such numbers get cherry-picked. Comparisons were also drawn to Nagasaki’s stadium, which was built with the parent company’s own funds, though the discussion never got into how the underlying ownership structures differ (municipal-partnership model vs. corporate-owned model).
※This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyou G) thread “Akita Mayor: “We need to verify whether the J.League stadium’s general-use days really match the estimate”.”
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