The Chunichi Dragons cruised to a 10-0 win over the Hiroshima Carp at Vantelin Dome on the 21st, but the team under manager Kazuki Inoue (55), now in his second year at the helm, is all but certain to finish in the bottom half of the standings (B Class) for a sixth straight season. Asked after the game about the manager’s future, team president Kato offered only: “I don’t have anything particular to say.” Meanwhile, home attendance has hit an all-time record, and on 5channel users debated the reasons behind the “packed stands despite a weak team” phenomenon and the club’s management philosophy.
[Chunichi] Asked About Manager Inoue’s Future, Team President Kato Answers “Nothing Particular to Say” — Home Attendance Hits All-Time High
<Chunichi 10-0 Hiroshima> ◇21st◇ Vantelin Dome
Chunichi manager Kazuki Inoue (55) apologized to the sold-out crowd of Dragons faithful. Now in his second straight year in charge, the team has landed in B Class for six consecutive seasons.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
Actually that was 2020, but the season got shortened because of COVID.
If you mean a proper full-length season, 2012 was the last time…
If they'd been in B Class that year too, the Dragons would be sitting on 14 straight B Class seasons (2013-2026) — enough to eventually pass the Hawks' 20-year B Class streak (1978-1997)?
Dragons
https://npb.jp/bis/teams/yearly_d.html
Hawks
https://npb.jp/bis/teams/yearly_h.html
More precisely, they're better off not winning it all, not spending any money, just pulling in crowds to plug the losses from the parent company's garbage core newspaper business ("masu-gomi," slang blending "mass media" and "garbage")
It's been half a century since a Hanshin executive told pitcher Yutaka Enatsu "you don't need to win," and yet that same mentality still hasn't gone away.
Like Re: #174 says, the team is just a nice little property for absorbing the parent company's losses — management would probably love to drive fans away and push the club into the red, but the diehards won't allow that.
I root for a team with a similarly run business model, so I know this dilemma well.
They don't have to raise player salaries.
From the owner's point of view, Inoue's staying on as manager.
Chunichi Dragons
Financial results: undisclosed lololol
Wonder why lol
So the manager's job is basically to be a clown, huh?
In that case, aren't there plenty of guys better suited to it than Inoue?
That's just about how many free tickets they hand out, so it doesn't really mean anything
Actually, right up until Inoue took over — and this includes the Tatsunami era too, of course — attendance stayed well below even Ochiai's final year, which was supposedly a bad year for crowds (the stretch from the Lehman Shock into the earthquake). It's only under Inoue that they finally topped that number.
Maybe the stadium food is just really good?
Is there any answer besides free tickets?
Even when they're mad, deep down they're enjoying themselves.
There's a long bank of memories from the old strong days to draw on, so they're still okay.
Aichi's economy is doing well enough to afford that kind of indulgence too.
Even the front office is probably thinking "guess we're fine like this, weak is okay too" (using the local Nagoya dialect endings "-dara" and "-zura") — a happy sort of shriek.
During the Ochiai era, when the team was strong but attendance was supposedly poor, how was he viewed among Nagoya locals? Negatively? Positively?
Hoping they can at least climb up to 4th place.
Do you like the Kansai-based branch of Dragons fans too?
Saw this in a news report — apparently you can't even get idol concert tickets these days.
Going to the ballpark and cheering for your favorite player like they're an idol seems to be the appeal.
Other stadiums also do things like player-themed bento boxes, drinks, and merch, so I'd guess they're doing a solid job of hooking that kind of fandom.
No it's not. It's actually a stadium where the baseball is hard to see.
No matter how you slice it, getting overtaken late in games over and over just means the manager's in-game decisions are failing.
Finally, someone with a sensible take.
Am I right that "B Class" just means "didn't finish in the top 3," not "finished last"?
A Class is 1st through 3rd place.
B Class is any team that didn't make the top 3.
Actually, they've got a pretty solid roster. The pitching staff especially is really good.
Chunichi hides theirs.
If that's the case, they couldn't even pull off a salary cap.
Short of something drastic like the club getting sold off if they don't win the pennant next year, nothing's going to wake this organization up.
The whole thing just reeks of a complacent, lukewarm culture.
Might as well go full Colorado Rockies — America's version of a joke franchise.
Can't picture them finishing above Hanshin, Yomiuri, or Yokohama.
The first name that comes to mind is Hosokawa, a guy who came over from another team — there's no real star player, yet the place still sells out. Pretty impressive.
Even low-key Chunichi players are hugely popular locally.
Sobae gets treated like a big-name alum and is constantly in demand by the media.
Sobae's fairly good-looking and a smooth talker, so he's probably easy for the media to use.
Then I guess a low-key Meikyukai (elite career-record club) member like Yohei Oshima must get treated like an absolute superstar, lol
Then bring in Ochiai after that and you'd have a golden era for a while.
But the owner isn't looking for any of that, lol
Ochiai's up there in age now and his body's worn down, so that's not happening.
Well, judging by what Ochiai's son Fukushi has said, even if he's in good health he probably just isn't motivated.
He was too busy squealing with excitement over Gundam GQuuuuuuX to make a comeback now.
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Chunichi last finished in true A Class (top 3) in 2012, and this season is on track to be their sixth consecutive year in B Class. At the same time, home attendance has surpassed even the level seen during the strong Hiromitsu Ochiai managerial era, setting a new all-time record. Around this unusual situation — a weak team that still draws crowds — the thread split between those who see it as simply convenient for management and those who credit individual players’ popularity and strong fan-service efforts. The fact that Chunichi doesn’t disclose its financial results, making the club’s actual management situation hard to see from outside, also fed into the discussion. Team president Kato’s answer of “nothing particular to say” could be read as hinting Inoue will stay on, but it wasn’t a clear statement either way, and the manager’s future remains undecided for now.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt/summary from the 5channel (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “[Baseball] Chunichi: Asked About Manager Inoue’s Future, Team President Kato Answers “Nothing Particular to Say” — Sixth Straight B Class, Home Attendance at All-Time High.”
