November 20, 2023

Sports Hospitality

While "sports hospitality," in which spectators are treated to luxurious services at sporting events, is familiar overseas, it is still in its infancy in Japan.

Many luxurious plans for watching sports games, ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands of yen, have appeared on the market. They vary from watching a professional baseball game from accommodations inside the stadium to watching a rugby game while interacting with former famous players at a hotel venue. In an age when all kinds of sports can be easily viewed on a smartphone, it is beginning to win the hearts and minds of sports fans who want to experience an extraordinary experience.

At Es Con Field Hokkaido, the home base of the Nippon Ham professional baseball team, you can watch games from lodging facilities within the stadium.

Room rates are variable but basically in the 100,000-yen range per night on days when matches occur. Eight of the 12 guest rooms face the grounds. You can watch the games inside your room through the glass window and feel the stadium's atmosphere more by going out on the balcony.

To increase the earning power of stadiums, hospitality offering features have become standard equipment in modern stadiums such as Es Con Field Hokkaido.

For the sports industry, which suffered a significant drop in attendance due to COVID-19, offering value-added spectator plans is a trump card for a resurgence. If the quality of service can be competed with one another beyond the competition, it will become a new form of sports spectating.