Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani (30, LA Dodgers) is controversial as Sapporo Dome, which was his home stadium during the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japanese professional baseball, has become a tax-eating monster. 에볼루션 바카라사이트
Japan’s Mainichi Shimbun reported on the 21st that Sapporo Dome’s profit and loss reached 651 million yen (about 5.67 billion won), the worst ever. Sapporo Dome, which was Nippon Ham’s home stadium until 2022, saw its value drop sharply in 2023 as Nippon Ham moved to its new stadium, Escon Field Hokkaido, and its net profit fell by 771 million yen (about 6.72 billion won) compared to the same period last year.
The deficit is said to be more than twice the original estimate. “The aftermath of Nippon Ham’s relocation has highlighted its difficulties in operation,” the newspaper said. Excluding the 200 million yen donation to Sapporo, the operating loss alone is 450 million yen (about 3.92 billion won).
With the absence of professional baseball, Japan’s most popular sport, Sapporo Dome has become a nuisance. Corporate sponsorship declined sharply, and even though Japan tried to use it as a concert venue, it was not easy due to geographical conditions. As Sapporo Dome is not the most popular among the five domes used in the Japanese music industry in the past, many singers mainly tour the four domes (Tokyo Dome, Fukoka Dome, Kyocera Dome, and Nagoya Dome) except Sapporo Dome.
Sapporo Mayor Akimoto Katsuhiro said, “It didn’t go as I thought. It’s difficult to make a profit because there are no advertisements and no weekday night games.” Regarding the opinion that “the outlook may have been naive,” he said, “It’s a little bit too much to say that the outlook was naive, and it’s true that it didn’t go as I thought, but the fact that we’re up for the challenge doesn’t change. We will aim to restore profitability in 2024.”
During his time at Sapporo Dome, Ohtani entered the U.S. professional baseball league with 42-15 losses, 2.52 strikeouts and 624 strikeouts as a pitcher at Nippon Ham, and a batting average of 0.286 48 home runs, 150 runs and 166 RBIs as a batter.
However, even when Ohtani was playing, Sapporo Dome was under poor grass conditions, which caused many complaints. Since Nippon Ham was also leased and used, the stadium took the profits from the operation of the stadium, not the club, and there were inconveniences such as having to clean up the training equipment one by one after the game.
The team desperately needed cooperation from the stadium, but due to Sapporo’s uncooperative attitude, Nippon Ham finally decided to build a new stadium and has been relocated to Eskon Field Hokkaido since last year. Sapporo Dome, which used to operate gut sales, is now facing the center of controversy due to Nippon Ham’s departure. “This is the result of continued optimistic negotiations. All the management should resign,” a Japanese netizen said.