Yokohama Stadium (横浜スタジアム, Yokohama Sutajiamu) is a baseball stadium in Naka-ku, Yokohama, Japan. It opened in 1978 and has a capacity of 34,046 people. It is primarily used for baseball and is the home field of the Yokohama DeNA BayStars and has the nickname of "Hamastar" (ハマスタ) a mix of the words yokoHAMA, STAdium and baySTARs. Due to the pronunciation also reminding people of the rōmaji pronunciation of the word "Hamster", the hamster ended up becoming one of the BayStars mascots as well. The stadium features dirt around the bases and pitcher's mound, but with dirt colored turf infield and base paths. The entire green portion of the field is also turfed. As of 2026, the stadium had become a cashless stadium, being the 4th stadium in the NPB to adopt it.
Recorded Here
Recorded or filmed here, from this catalogue:
- ONE OK ROCK - Mighty Long Fall at Yokohama Stadium - ONE OK ROCK, released April 29, 2015 (
AZBS-1030). Recorded At.
History
Translated from the ja.wikipedia article 横浜スタジアム (CC BY-SA 4.0), revision 110268342.
Overview
Completed in March 1978 on the site of the aging Yokohama Park Peace Baseball Stadium (横浜公園平和野球場, commonly known as “Heiwa Stadium”), it became the home stadium of the Yokohama Taiyo Whales, now the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, which relocated from Kawasaki Stadium, now Kawasaki Fujimi Football Stadium, that same year. In addition to being used for amateur baseball, including Kanagawa University Baseball League games, the Kanagawa tournament of the National High School Baseball Championship, the Yokohama Mayor’s Cup Kanto District University Baseball Championship, a qualifying tournament for the Meiji Jingu Baseball Tournament, and corporate baseball, it is also frequently used for American football. In the summer high school baseball tournament, it is used from the first round in addition to hosting the opening ceremony, and becomes the main stadium from the quarter-finals onward in place of Hodogaya Stadium.
The land is national property, while the facility is owned by the City of Yokohama and operated and managed by Yokohama Stadium Co., Ltd., a third-sector company funded by the city and other investors. Its distinguishing features are its appearance resembling a tilted bowl and its six inverted-triangular lighting towers modeled on the letter “Y,” the initial of Yokohama. In 2003, it became the first outdoor baseball stadium in Japan to adopt FieldTurf, a long-pile artificial turf.
At the time of its completion in 1978, it had the longest distances to both outfield wings among Japanese professional baseball home stadiums. However, all stadiums newly built thereafter, beginning with Seibu Lions Stadium, which opened the following year, had longer distances, while older stadiums were also expanded. As a result, since 2009, when Hiroshima Municipal Stadium was replaced by Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium Hiroshima, it has instead had the shortest distances.
Local governments within Kanagawa Prefecture, including Kanagawa Prefecture and the City of Yokohama, as well as local mass media such as the Kanagawa Shimbun, sometimes use the expression “equivalent to [number] Yokohama Stadiums” as a customary unit for converting area or volume.
History
In July 1878, the Foreigners' Sports Ground (cricket ground) was established in the center of Higai Park, now Yokohama Park.
In 1910, Yokohama Park Baseball Field was established in the southeastern corner of Yokohama Park.
In September 1923, Yokohama Park Baseball Field was destroyed by the Great Kanto Earthquake.
In March 1929, Yokohama Park Sports Ground, which was named a sports ground but was shaped as a baseball field, was established on the site of the former Yokohama Park Baseball Field.
In 1945, it was requisitioned by GHQ, a requisition that was lifted in 1952, and renamed Lou Gehrig Memorial Stadium.
In 1955, it was renamed Yokohama Park Peace Baseball Field.
In February 1977, Yokohama Stadium Co., Ltd. was established.
In March 1978, Yokohama Stadium was completed on the site of the former Yokohama Park Peace Baseball Field. The facilities were donated to the City of Yokohama, while the company acquired the rights to use them for events. It became the dedicated stadium of Taiyo Baseball Club Co., Ltd. (now the Yokohama DeNA BayStars).
In March 1979, affiliated company Yokohama Kyujyo Shoji Co., Ltd. was established to handle the contracted sale of stadium merchandise, admission tickets and other items, and to operate a retail liquor business; it is now a consolidated subsidiary.
In August 1984, an indoor practice facility was completed and donated to the City of Yokohama.
In February 1993, affiliated company Stadium Enterprise Co., Ltd. was established; it is now a consolidated subsidiary.
In November 2015, Yokohama DeNA BayStars Co., Ltd. commenced a friendly tender offer for Yokohama Stadium Co., Ltd.
In January 2016, following the completion of the friendly tender offer, Yokohama Stadium Co., Ltd. became a consolidated subsidiary of DeNA Co., Ltd.
Japan's First Multipurpose Stadium
The front sections of the infield stands and the pitcher's mound were the first in Japan to employ movable systems. During baseball games, under normal conditions, the field was fan-shaped; however, for events such as American football games, the movable stands along the first- and third-base sides could be repositioned to change the field into a rectangular shape. The mound was retractable, and for non-baseball events it could be lowered, covered with a framework, and then overlaid with artificial-turf mats to make the entire field level.
Both the movable stands and the retractable mound were installed with use for events other than professional baseball in mind, making Yokohama Stadium the first building in Japan to be designed from the outset as a multipurpose stadium. Its field, constructed as a true circle centered behind second base, reflects the influence of American football–baseball stadiums that were popular in the United States from the 1960s through the 1970s. This design philosophy was also adopted in later domed stadiums and other venues. In addition, it was the first professional baseball stadium in Japan to be equipped, from the time of its construction, with a fully artificial-turf field, an electronic scoreboard, and a video display system.
The movable stands on both the first- and third-base sides were semicircular and ran on two 36-meter rails, moving at a speed of 1 meter per minute. However, they have not been moved since a joint fan appreciation event held on November 23, 2001 by the Yokohama BayStars and Yokohama F. Marinos. This was due to priority being given to the maintenance of the Field Turf installed from the 2003 season. Since foundation work was carried out for the field seats—known as Excite Seats and installed in the foul territory from 2013—the movable stands have in practice remained fixed on the first- and third-base sides while still resting on the two rails.
From the design stage, plans called for two locker rooms on each of the first- and third-base sides. The first-base side also contained two managers' rooms and two coaches' rooms. This design suggests that, while the reconstruction of Yokohama Park Peace Baseball Stadium was being discussed, a proposal was considered for the Taiyo Whales and the Lotte Orions to share Yokohama Stadium as their home ground under a “double franchise” system.
During the reconstruction of Yokohama Park after the Great Kanto Earthquake, the outdoor music hall Yokohama Park Music Hall was built alongside Yokohama Park Sports Ground, which was in effect a baseball field and was later renamed Yokohama Park Peace Baseball Stadium. When Yokohama Stadium was constructed, Yokohama Park Music Hall was demolished together with Yokohama Park Peace Baseball Stadium, and Yokohama Stadium was also expected to serve as a replacement for the outdoor music hall.
Before the construction of Yokohama Stadium, Yokohama had no large-scale sports venues or concert halls and lagged behind other cities in the fields of sporting events and music performances. The completion of Yokohama Stadium contributed greatly to resolving these shortcomings. It served for many years as the starting and finishing venue of the Yokohama International Women's Ekiden. In 1994, during the formative years of the J.League, it hosted a pre-season match against Palmeiras at the invitation of Yokohama Flugels. This was its first use for a professional football match. As natural grass was to be laid manually over the artificial-turf field on the day before the match, natural grass equivalent to 150 large truckloads was reportedly grown on rented fields within Kanagawa Prefecture from around two years before the event.
The stadium has also been used for numerous concerts, with many prominent Japanese and international artists holding large-scale performances there. The popular Japanese rock band TUBE has performed at Yokohama Stadium every August for more than 30 years, except from 1988 to 1990, making the concerts a feature of the summer season. Other popular artists also hold approximately one outdoor concert there each summer. Artists also make guest appearances before and after games through BayStars-organized events, while the Yokohama Reggae Sai (横浜レゲエ祭) was held from 2006 to 2009 and in 2011.
However, because Yokohama Stadium has no roof, the viability of events is easily affected by weather conditions, and there are also noise issues for nearby residents. In addition, it is difficult to attract audiences appropriate to a venue with a capacity of 30,000. Since the completion of Yokohama Arena and Yokohama International Stadium in the 1990s, its use for large-scale non-baseball events has therefore tended to decline. Nevertheless, it was used as the Yokohama venue for outdoor tours of the Real Escape Game, an immersive puzzle-solving event organized by SCRAP: in 2014, for the Attack on Titan collaboration Escape from a Certain Fortress City: Yokohama Performance, and in 2015, for the ONE PIECE collaboration Escape from the Summit War: Yokohama Performance.
Building Coverage Ratio Issues
The stadium’s three-dimensional exterior differs from the vertical form seen at other baseball stadiums: its stands are shaped like an inverted cone, with a wide upper edge and a narrow lower edge. This is due to the “building coverage ratio regulations for sports facilities in urban parks” stipulated in Article 6, Paragraph 1, Item 1 of the Enforcement Order of the Urban Park Act. Since the building coverage ratio is calculated using the lower edge of the stands, this was effectively a stopgap measure, and various distinctive design features were adopted to overcome area-related constraints.
Compared with the so-called “international-standard” baseball stadiums constructed from the 1990s onward, Yokohama Stadium has long been noted for its relatively low spectator capacity and small playing field. As it was designed at the limits of the legal restrictions, increasing seating capacity through stand expansions or enlarging the playing field through structural alterations to the stands was effectively impossible unless the law was amended. However, following a legal revision in 2012, the building coverage ratio was relaxed to 12%.
For these reasons, space for the bullpen could not be secured behind the dugouts or within the playing field, and it is therefore located beneath the outfield stands. The bullpen faces Yokohama Park, separated only by a screening tent and an iron fence intended to prevent entry, allowing the sound of relief pitchers’ pitches being caught and the calls of bullpen catchers to be heard from outside the stadium. As there is no connecting passage between the dugouts and the bullpen, they are isolated from one another. Consequently, relief pitchers, whether professional or amateur, must either wait in the bullpen before the game or walk across foul territory to reach it during changes between offense and defense.
During pitching changes in professional games, a relief car is normally used. When the stadium opened, an open-top Nissan Bluebird 910 was used, followed by Nissan’s Be-1 and S-Cargo and Toyota’s MR-S sports car. Since the 2017 season, a modified Nissan Leaf has been used.
As a result of adopting a structure that houses the bullpen beneath the outfield stands, Yokohama Stadium’s outfield fence reaches a height of 5 meters, comparable to that of a dome stadium. As a result, it is extremely unlikely for a batted ball that bounces within the playing field to clear the fence for a ground-rule double, and it is also virtually impossible to climb the fence to catch a fly ball. The fence in front of the infield exciting seats is lower, however, and ground-rule doubles into that area have occurred on several occasions. Although the fence is high, the outfield stands are shallow, making it possible for professional power hitters to hit home runs out of the stadium.
In the Yokohama–Hanshin game held on August 27, 2009, an intoxicated spectator climbed over the 1-meter fence in the right-field stands and fell 5 meters onto the playing field, dying two days later.
Reliefs of Gehrig and Ruth
On November 18, 1934, a Japan–United States baseball game was held at Yokohama Park Stadium, the predecessor of Yokohama Stadium. The MLB All-Stars hit a total of five home runs: two by Babe Ruth and one each by Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, and Earl Averill. The All-Japan All-Stars hit one home run, by Toshiharu Inokawa. The MLB All-Stars had also played at Yokohama Park Stadium three years earlier, against All Yokohama on November 29, 1931 and Yokohama Higher Commercial School on November 30.
Yokohama Park Stadium was at one time known as Lou Gehrig Memorial Stadium during the post-war occupation period. To commemorate the fact that stars who left their mark on MLB history, including Gehrig and Ruth, played at the site, Yokohama Stadium, its successor, formerly had a relief of Lou Gehrig near the foul pole in the right-field stands and a relief of Babe Ruth near the foul pole in the left-field stands. They are now displayed in the infield concourse on the STAR SIDE.
Plaques for Meikyukai Inductees
Since 2006, ball-patterned plaques bearing the names of players who were inducted into the Meikyukai while with the Whales or BayStars have been installed in the right-field outfield stands in recognition of their achievements. Initially installed on the outfield fence, they were moved to the upper part of the outfield seating with the introduction of the ribbon vision display in the 2012 season, and their design was changed to include photographs of the players.
From right-center field toward the right-field foul pole, they are arranged as follows:
“1980.4.23 2,000 HITS Makoto Matsubara” (final total: 2,095 hits)
“1983.10.21 200 WINS Masaji Hiramatsu” (final total: 201 wins)
“2000.9.6 2,000 HITS Norihiro Komada” (final total: 2,006 hits)
“2005.4.14 250 SAVES Kazuhiro Sasaki” (final total: 381 saves—252 in NPB and 129 in MLB)
“2006.5.11 2,000 HITS Takuro Ishii” (final total: 2,432 hits)
“2013.4.6 2,000 HITS Alex Ramirez” (final total: 2,017 hits)
“2013.5.5 2,000 HITS Norihiro Nakamura” (final total: 2,101 hits)
Concessions
Concession stands are located on the second-floor concourse of the infield stands and on the first floor of the outfield stands. A 31 Ice Cream outlet is located on the first-base side of the infield stands, while a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet is located on the third-base side. Domino's Pizza operates wagon-style outlets on both the first- and third-base sides. Beef bowls sold at the stadium were supplied by Yoshinoya until around 2000 and by Nakau from around 2001, but both have since withdrawn.
“Mikan Gori” (みかん氷), sold inside the stadium, has become a specialty. It consists of shaved ice topped with canned mandarins and drizzled with the syrup from the canned mandarins. Long queues form at the sales stands, particularly during daytime games in midsummer and during the Kanagawa Prefecture High School Baseball Tournament. Until 2009, it was sold at infield concession stands on the first- and third-base sides, and only on the third-base side until 2004; from 2010, it also began to be sold at concession stands in the outfield seats. Since 2007, “Pineapple Gori” (パイナップル氷), made with canned pineapple and syrup instead of mandarins, has also been sold, although only on the first-base side.
In addition to Mikan Gori, the stadium has offered a particularly extensive range of original menu items since DeNA became involved in stadium operations. Its original beers, “BayStars Ale” and “BayStars Lager”, are also sold in bottles as souvenirs. Canned versions of “Seiseiryo Curry”, the curry eaten by players at the BayStars’ Seiseiryo (青星寮) player dormitory, are sold as souvenirs, and the curry has also been served as school lunch at public elementary schools in Yokohama. Other new menu items, including “Bay Kara”, “Bay Menchi”, and “Bay Gyoza”, have also been introduced and gained popularity.
The wrapping paper used for Kiyoken’s Shumai Bento is an original Yokohama Stadium design. At the Kiyoken sales stand at Kannai Station, the bento is sold at its regular price, but with the standard wrapping paper.
On the third floor, midway up the infield seating area, is Cafe Victory Court, which was created in 2005 by renovating an existing restaurant. The interior displays successive uniforms of the Whales and BayStars, as well as championship pennants.
Because of the steep slope of the stands, draft beer had not been sold to spectators in their seats from tank servers for many years, but tank sales began in the 2013 season.
The beer vendors inside the stadium sell two types of snacks: chikuwa and Yokohama Beer Kaki, made by the local Minoya Arare Seizo Honpo.
The stadium is one of the few ballparks where plastic bottles may be brought in, and plastic-bottled beverages are sold at vending machines and wagons inside the stadium. At most other ballparks, bringing in and selling plastic bottles is prohibited in order to prevent them from being thrown.
Although the team’s official shop is now located outside the stadium, for some time after the stadium opened there was an indoor shop called the “Major League Shop”, which carried Major League Baseball merchandise that was rare at the time.
Background to Construction
Before Yokohama Stadium was built, the site was occupied by Yokohama Park Peace Baseball Stadium (Yokohama Koen Heiwa Yakyujo), commonly known as Peace Stadium, which was completed in 1929. Before the war, it hosted friendly matches between a selection of Major League Baseball players and the Japan national team, the forerunners of the later Japan–United States Baseball series. Star players of the time, including Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, visited and played there. However, after the Pacific War, the stadium was requisitioned by the United States military and later returned to the City of Yokohama. It subsequently deteriorated, and by the early 1970s, nearly half of its stands could no longer be used.
At the same time, the Taiyo Whales, whose protected territory at the time was Kanagawa Prefecture, felt that Kawasaki Stadium, their home ground, had limited ability to attract spectators and were seeking to relocate to Yokohama, the most widely known city in the prefecture. On November 22, 1972, the Taiyo club submitted a request to the City of Yokohama stating that it wished to move its home base from Kawasaki when Yokohama Peace Stadium was rebuilt. It reached a memorandum of understanding with Kazuo Asukata, then Mayor of Yokohama, after obtaining his consent.
Construction of a New Stadium
Mayor Asukata was not opposed to the construction of a new stadium, partly because Taiyo intended to relocate. However, in the wake of the First Oil Shock, Yokohama City's finances were also strained, making it virtually impossible for the city to secure a construction budget on its own. In addition, development of the Minato Mirai area was still only at the planning stage, while sites requisitioned by the United States military, with no prospect of being returned, were scattered throughout the city. There was no land other than Yokohama Park that could provide comparable transport access.
Consequently, construction of the stadium inevitably took the form of rebuilding Heiwa Stadium. However, demolishing Heiwa Stadium and constructing a stadium large enough to host professional baseball involved numerous obstacles beyond funding, including building coverage ratio restrictions on structures within the park, negotiations with the Ministry of Construction, the responsible government agency, and the issue of alternative sites for facilities in Yokohama Park that would be forced to relocate because of the stadium's construction, such as the Kanagawa Prefectural Budokan and Yokohama Park Gymnasium. In particular, the removal of the United States military's Yokohama Chapel Center from Yokohama Park required coordination not only with the Government of Japan but also with the United States Forces Japan.
Commencement of Construction
However, when Mayor Ichio Asukata's mediation led Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, president of Kokudo Keikaku, to announce that he would acquire a partial stake in the Taiyo baseball club (approximately 45%) and provide a loan of 300 million yen for construction costs, momentum for rebuilding accelerated rapidly. Through the efforts of Asukata and others, issues other than funding were gradually resolved. In addition to Tsutsumi's support, shareholders were recruited from among the public, and in 1977 the third-sector operating company Yokohama Stadium Co., Ltd. was established. On April 1, 1977, the Ministry of Finance approved the city's reconstruction plan, and construction of the ballpark began.
A building of this scale would normally require a construction period of around two years, but Yokohama Stadium was to be completed in time for the opening of the following year's professional baseball season. An exceptionally short construction schedule of approximately one year was therefore set, including the demolition of Heiwa Stadium. At the start of construction, a joint venture of around seven general contractors was involved; however, because of the schedule, a total of 11 general contractors ultimately came together, and construction was carried out under an extremely accelerated system. As the law did not permit a company-operated facility to be built on publicly owned land, Yokohama Stadium Co., Ltd. constructed the facility and then transferred it to the City of Yokohama free of charge, while continuing to operate it. When Heiwa Stadium was demolished, its scoreboard was relocated to Fujisawa City's Happe Baseball Stadium, where it was used for approximately another ten years.
Meanwhile, Kawasaki City strongly objected after the Taiyo side unilaterally informed it of the relocation without having previously taken the city into consideration. A campaign opposing the move was conducted in the city under the slogan, “Do not make us a city of only smokestacks,” and collected 540,000 signatures, equivalent to approximately half of the city's population at the time. In response to the petition, the Taiyo baseball club announced on June 15 that it would reconsider the relocation, but its intention did not change. In August, the club's president at the time, Shigehei Yokota, formally notified Kawasaki City that Yokohama Stadium would become the club's exclusive ballpark from 1978.
Completion
Construction was completed safely on schedule, and Yokohama Stadium was completed on March 31, 1978. On April 4 of the same year, the inaugural official game was held between the Yokohama Taiyo Whales, renamed following their relocation, and the Yomiuri Giants. The hometown Taiyo won 4–1, aided by a strong pitching performance from Akio Saito, the previous year's Rookie of the Year. The ceremonial first pitch was thrown by Kazuo Asukata, the former mayor who had worked to support the stadium's construction and who was then chairman of the Japan Socialist Party.
Lotte Shared-Use Issue
Around the time construction of Yokohama Stadium was formally decided, the Pacific League's Lotte Orions approached the Taiyo Whales, proposing that Lotte also share Yokohama Stadium as a home venue and hold approximately 40 official games there annually.
Tokyo Stadium, Lotte's home stadium, had closed during the 1972 off-season, and from 1973 the club had used Miyagi Stadium in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture—now Rakuten Mobile Park Miyagi, the home stadium of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles—as a temporary home venue. At the time, however, the Tohoku Shinkansen had not yet opened, and air travel was not as readily accessible as it is today. Four of the league's six clubs—the Nankai Hawks, Kintetsu Buffaloes, Hankyu Braves, and Crown Lighter Lions—were based in western Japan. Moreover, in the Pacific League of the time, when attendance at every club was far lower than it is today, long-distance travel for each series imposed a major burden on both Lotte and visiting teams, both physically on players and financially on clubs. The construction of Yokohama Stadium was therefore an ideal opportunity for Lotte.
Taiyo, which had assumed sole use of Yokohama Stadium, was reluctant to accept Lotte's proposal out of concern that shared use would impose scheduling restrictions. Since Taiyo had already formally notified Kawasaki of its relocation, the interests of four parties became intertwined: Yokohama, which wished to gain the economic benefits brought by professional baseball; Kawasaki, which did not wish to lose them; Taiyo, which wished to increase attendance in Yokohama, then Japan's third-most populous city after Osaka City—Yokohama's population surpassed that of Osaka City in 1978, the year the stadium opened; and Lotte. Negotiations continued until shortly before the stadium's completion, attracting attention from the media and the public. However, Taiyo's advantage, having already held regional protection rights in Kanagawa Prefecture, was never overturned. Although Lotte was permitted to transfer its protected territory to Kanagawa Prefecture, Yokohama Stadium became Taiyo's exclusive stadium as originally planned, while Lotte settled at Kawasaki Stadium.
Even after the home-stadium issue was resolved, Kawasaki and Taiyo became almost estranged because Taiyo had caused controversy by failing to show consideration before and after announcing its move to Yokohama. Taiyo hosted two official games at Kawasaki Stadium in 1978, the year it relocated to Yokohama, but no games were scheduled there from 1979 through 1992. On August 6, 1993, after becoming the Yokohama BayStars, the club scheduled a home official game against the Hanshin Tigers there for the first time in 15 years, including the Taiyo era, but it was rained out. No further Yokohama home official games were held there, and the seating at Kawasaki Stadium was demolished in 2000.
Owners' Seats
At the time of the stadium's construction, both Kanagawa Prefecture and the City of Yokohama were suffering financial difficulties. Rather than operating it directly as a prefectural or municipal facility, they established Yokohama Stadium Co., Ltd., a third-sector operating company centered on the City of Yokohama, government bodies, corporations and organizations. The stadium operating company constructed the facility and donated it to the City of Yokohama upon completion. Since its opening, the company has leased the stadium from the city under a 45-year contract (1978–2023), effectively operating under a publicly owned, privately operated arrangement. In raising capital for the stadium operating company, shareholders were recruited from among citizens, corporations and organizations, with one investment unit consisting of 5,000 shares at 500 yen per share, or 2.5 million yen. As a benefit, shareholders were granted ownership rights to “Owners' Seats”.
These Owners' Seats entitled their holders to free admission and attendance at all home official and preseason games of the Taiyo (later Yokohama, then DeNA) club held at the stadium—approximately 60 games per year—for the full 45 years until the expiry of the stadium lease agreement. As of December 2015, when a tender offer for the company’s shares was made, a total of 554 individuals, corporations and organizations were registered as shareholders, with slightly less than half being individuals. Even after DeNA and the DeNA club became the operating entities through the tender offer for the stadium company’s shares, Owners' Seats remained available for use until the contract expired in 2023, on the grounds that they were governed by a separate agreement from the operating company’s shares.
DeNA's "Community Ballpark" Concept and Acquisition of the Operating Company
Since the stadium opened in 1978, Yokohama Stadium Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the “operating company”) has held the rights relating to in-stadium merchandise sales, advertising revenue, and the setting of stadium usage fees. Under these conditions, the Yokohama Taiyo Whales, Yokohama BayStars, and Yokohama DeNA BayStars concluded agreements with the operating company to use the stadium as their home ground.
During negotiations over the sale of the Yokohama BayStars' management rights, which had been held by TBS Holdings since 2002, it was reported in 2010 that the above agreement was placing pressure on the club's finances, as stadium usage fees and advertising and merchandise revenues did not accrue to the club. DeNA, which acquired the BayStars' management rights from TBS after the end of the 2011 professional baseball season, held 5.74% of the operating company's outstanding shares. Before the start of the 2012 season, Makoto Haruta (春田真), then the club owner and a former DeNA employee, met with Hiroshi Tsuruoka (鶴岡博), president of the operating company. They concluded a seven-year stadium usage agreement under which the stadium usage fee, regarded as high compared with the home stadiums of other NPB clubs, was reduced to 13% of ticket revenue, while revenue from new sponsors of billboard advertisements and merchandise sales at permanent stores outside the stadium would accrue to the club.
In 2015, DeNA recorded a loss of ¥1.3 billion in its baseball business related to the BayStars in its financial results for the fiscal year ending in March. On the other hand, during that year's professional baseball season, BayStars-hosted official games at the stadium recorded 43 sell-outs, then a season record. Total attendance at hosted official games, including games held at other stadiums, was approximately 1,813,800, around 1.7 times the figure before the acquisition of the management rights, and the company expected the aforementioned loss to be halved. In July, it was reported that club and operating company officials had visited the home stadiums of MLB clubs with a view to laying natural grass in the infield and outfield from 2016 onward.
Against this background and under the stadium's “Community Ballpark” concept, DeNA sought integrated operation of the club and stadium in order to increase revenue from its baseball business and for other purposes. On October 9, 2015, it reached a basic agreement with the operating company to conduct a friendly tender offer worth approximately ¥10 billion in total, with the aim of acquiring a majority of the company's outstanding shares. From November 24 of that year, it conducted a friendly tender offer for the operating company through the club. As DeNA owned 76.87% of the operating company's outstanding shares at the close of the offer on January 20, 2016, the operating company became a consolidated subsidiary, or sub-subsidiary, of DeNA on January 28 of the same year.
Following the change in the operating company's status, operations shifted to an integrated system under DeNA for the club and stadium. Initially, this transition was expected to improve the club's management by allowing it to directly secure in-stadium merchandise and advertising revenues, and to accelerate decision-making for large-scale stadium renovations, including the installation of natural grass and expansion of seating. Jun Ikeda (池田純), then president of the club, also announced future stadium operating plans following the successful friendly tender offer. Under the keywords “COLOR,” “ENTERTAINMENT,” “SEAT,” “HISTORY,” “BALLPARK,” “FOOD,” “GREEN,” “BEYOND,” and “LANDSCAPE,” he stated that the aim was to create a stadium loved by the citizens of Yokohama. The Community Ballpark concept received a Good Design Award in fiscal 2017, while the Community Ballpark Project received the award in fiscal 2021.
Renovations for Hosting the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (Fiscal Years 2017–2020)
Following the approval in 2016 of the use of Yokohama Stadium as the main venue for the baseball and softball competitions at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, the operating company submitted an 8.5 billion yen-scale stadium renovation plan to the City of Yokohama on March 15, 2017. Under the plan, approximately 6,000 seats in total were to be added behind the backstop and along the first- and third-base sides. The plan also called for the introduction of private viewing seats and deck seating, as well as improvements to accessibility, including an increase in the number of elevators.
As the stadium is located within Yokohama Park, which is managed by the City of Yokohama, construction began on November 25, 2017, after the city approved the plan and following the end of the 2017 professional baseball season. Since work was carried out primarily during the professional baseball off-season, it was completed in February 2020, three years after construction began. As a result, the stadium's capacity increased from approximately 29,000 before the work to a maximum of 34,046 for NPB official games. According to Kenshu Fujii (藤井謙宗), then president and representative director of the operating company, construction was so far behind schedule at the end of 2018 that there were concerns over the start of the 2019 NPB regular season, but the delay was recovered through work beginning at the end of 2019.
Measures Associated With Use for the Baseball and Softball Competitions at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (2021)
Although there was no prospect of bringing the spread of COVID-19 under control, NPB designated the period before and after the scheduled Summer Tokyo Olympics, from July 15 to August 12, as a suspension period when compiling the regular-season schedule. Taking into account the period from venue setup through dismantling for the baseball and softball competitions, the stadium suspended the hosting of matches and events other than the Olympics for more than two months from mid-June.
Major Renovations After Construction
Yokohama Stadium has undergone numerous renovations through repeated refurbishment work from its completion to the present.
In 1978, during the season, fences were installed in front of the dugouts.
Scoreboard Renovation
When the stadium opened, its scoreboard was Japan's second fully electric display, after Korakuen Stadium. The layout of the first-generation scoreboard, which used light bulbs until 1988, was similar to that of Kawasaki Stadium, with the score in the upper left.
Episodes
At the time of the stadium's opening, during official Yokohama Taiyo Whales home games, a musician played songs on a Victoron, an electronic organ manufactured and sold at the time by Japan Victor, whenever a player from the team came to bat, when players were substituted, such as during a pitcher's warm-up pitches, and between innings. The songs included “Iku zo Taiyo”, which had been released as the team song in 1977, the year before the stadium opened and the Taiyo Whales' final year.
The Victoron was installed in a glass-walled performance room covered by a helmet-shaped roof, commonly known as the “Victoron Capsule”. It was initially located in the middle tier of the left-field stands, before later being moved to the middle tier of the right-field stands, in both cases near the back screen. It ceased to be used around 2002, during the Yokohama era, and was removed along with its capsule during stadium renovation work in the 2005 off-season.
Victoron performers were hired through auditions held by the Yokohama Taiyo club, with several musicians taking turns performing on different days during the official-game season. At the time of the stadium's opening, advertisements bearing the name “Victor Victoron” were also displayed on the fences.
Even after the team was renamed the Yokohama DeNA BayStars, this presentation has occasionally been used for Yokohama Taiyo Whales revival events, including Legend Matches. However, as Victoron production ended in 1991, music is performed on an electronic organ made by another company in the broadcasting room behind home plate.
Cheering with jet balloons was generally prohibited until 2012 because it violated Yokohama's anti-littering and no-smoking ordinance, interfered with game proceedings, and could affect the nearby JR Negishi Line. An exception was made only for the 1995 All-Star Game, when the stadium was filled with yellow balloons, one of the team's colors. In 2012, cheering using soap bubbles as a substitute for jet balloons took place. From 2013 onward, only “Star Jets” were permitted. These balloons are unlikely to fly outside the stadium and are superior in environmental terms for parks around the stadium and in safety terms regarding their effect on nearby trains. In addition to blue DeNA-colored versions, versions for other clubs, including the Hanshin Tigers, are sold, and similar products are also sold at a nearby Hanshin Tigers shop. They are also customarily released at the beginning of encore performances at TUBE concerts, although since 2013 such concerts have sold jet balloons with the same specifications as Star Jets. During outbreaks of novel influenza and other diseases, their voluntary non-use or prohibition has at times been requested.
The broadcasting booths formerly located behind the backstop had grilles on the field side but no glass windows, making it easy for sounds from within the stadium to enter.
Because blue, the complementary color of human skin, is used for the back screen, pitchers' release points are easy to see. Combined with the stadium's small dimensions, games at the stadium tend to become high-scoring slugfests.
As the seating intervals in both the infield and outfield stands were narrow when the stadium opened, “vinyl umbrella cheering” by the Tokyo Yakult Swallows supporters' group, the Tsubame Gundan, was temporarily prohibited when the club played away games there.
At Yokohama Taiyo, Yokohama, and DeNA home games from the stadium's opening through the 2016 season, every home run by a player of the club was accompanied by an announcement of “Good-bye Baseball!”, meaning “It's in! Home run!”, and the sound of a ship's horn. At DeNA home games from the 2017 season onward, this was changed to a presentation in which fireworks are launched from near the back screen.
Birds and cats sometimes enter the field and interrupt games. In 2015, cats repeatedly entered the infield early in the season and interrupted games. A game against Hanshin on April 13, 2017, was also interrupted when a cat ran across the field. Frogs have previously entered the outfield during rainy weather.
A kendo dojo, Kendo Yokohama Kobukan (剣道横浜公武館), occupies part of the first floor of the third-base-side infield stands.
Until the early 1990s, advertisements were displayed on the foul poles, while advertising stickers were also affixed to the backs of seats in the infield stands.
Ahead of the home stadiums of other NPB clubs, consideration has been given to visiting-team players and fans when exhibition and official games are held.
When a visiting team wins, a post-game hero interview is also conducted with a player from that team.
At DeNA home games since 2013, a recording of the visiting team's club song has been played in the stadium before that team's turn at bat in the top of the seventh inning. Initially, the club songs of the Giants and Hanshin were excluded, but Hanshin's club song began to be played in 2017 and the Giants' in 2018.
From 2013, a stadium DJ has continuously handled public-address announcements during DeNA's offensive innings. Stadium DJs had previously also handled announcements mainly at weekend games.
Although unreserved seating areas had been provided in both the infield and outfield stands since the stadium opened, all outfield seats became reserved seats from 2013. Since unreserved seating in the infield stands was abolished in 2014, all seats in the stadium stands have been reserved seats.
In the Yokohama DeNA BayStars game against the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks on June 3, 2015, a ball hit by SoftBank's Yuki Yanagita off DeNA's Daisuke Miura in the top of the sixth directly struck one of the 30-centimetre-square liquid-crystal-display panels incorporated into the scoreboard screen, near the right side of the position display for the home team's third batter. The hit was recorded as a solo home run. The panel was deformed as a result. After being removed during replacement work following the game, the deformed panel was displayed for a limited period at SoftBank's home stadium, Fukuoka Yafuoku! Dome.
In 2021, when Miura became DeNA's first-team manager, a ball hit by DeNA's Tyler Austin off Yakult's Hiromi Takahashi in the bottom of the first inning of the May 1 game against the Tokyo Yakult Swallows directly struck the scoreboard. Although the panel was not deformed, the point struck was near the name-display area for the home team's leadoff batter, which displayed the name “Kuwahara” for DeNA's Masayuki Kuwahara that day, and was about 1.5 meters higher than the point struck by Yanagita's earlier hit. According to TrackMan measurements, the ball had a velocity of 178 km/h, a launch angle of 27 degrees, an estimated distance of 146 meters, and a maximum height of 31 meters. Miura, who watched the ball from the first-base-side dugout, told reporters after the game, self-deprecatingly, “That was an incredible hit. It was perfect. I was hit like that during my playing days too, though by a Japanese player. The head coach beside me, Michio Aoyama, also said, ‘This seems familiar somehow.’”
During the interleague game between DeNA and the Saitama Seibu Lions on June 7, 2019, a fly ball hit by Seibu's Yuji Kaneko toward the right-field foul pole in the top of the sixth struck the top of the fence in fair territory and entered the stands in foul territory. The first-base umpire initially ruled the ball a home run, but it was difficult to determine by eye where the ball had struck and the area into which it had entered. Replay review by the umpiring crew showed that the ball had struck the top of the fence in fair territory and bounced into the stands in foul territory, so the ruling was changed from a home run to a ground-rule double. Had the ball struck the pole directly, or struck the top of the fence in fair territory and entered the stands in fair territory, it would have been a home run as initially ruled.
Yokohama Stadium has had field seats since 2013, but no protective netting was installed through 2017. There were cases in which a ball bouncing in fair territory near the foul line entered the field seats and was ruled a ground-rule double. However, since 2018, when removable protective netting for use at non-sporting events was installed, that possibility has become extremely unlikely.
As of the end of the 2018 season, it was the only home stadium among the NPB's 12 clubs that had never hosted a Climax Series as a home game for its resident club. In 2019, after finishing second in the regular season, it hosted the First Stage against the third-place Hanshin Tigers as DeNA home games for the first time in the series' history.
During DeNA home official games in 2019, balls hit by foreign players, all recorded as home runs, struck the scoreboard on two occasions.
In the game against the Chunichi Dragons on August 10, a ball hit by Chunichi's Dayan Viciedo off DeNA's Kenta Ishida in the top of the fourth directly struck a liquid-crystal-display panel incorporated into the scoreboard screen, in an advertising space beside the visiting team. The panel was deformed as a result.
In the game against the Giants on September 11, a ball hit by DeNA's Neftali Soto off the Giants' Toshiki Sakurai in the bottom of the second directly struck the space displaying the score for the bottom of the seventh inning. The display in that space could not be shown until the end of the second inning, but the problem was only a disconnected wire behind it, and it was restored from the top of the fourth.
At the top of the stands behind the backstop, Nippon Broadcasting System installed a small prefabricated hut, a supplementary broadcast booth for radio coverage of Yokohama BayStars home games, during the period in which the club used the stadium as its home. In 2013 renovation work, radio broadcast booths, including those of other stations, were moved from field level behind the backstop to the top tier. Until 2018, however, stairs were the only means of travel between this area and the first floor at field level. The stairs comprised 130 steps and followed the steep gradient of the stands, leading radio broadcast personnel to describe traveling from the field to the broadcast booths as “mountain climbing”. Renovation work at the end of 2018 added an elevator directly connecting the first floor and the top of the stands to facilitate access.
Before the opening of the 2020 regular season, practice games were arranged without spectators. On this occasion, DeNA batted first in games against Rakuten and Nippon-Ham, both of which were visitors in every game, in consideration of those teams. Against Rakuten, DeNA suffered the unusual result of a walk-off loss at its home stadium.
At the beginning of the 2020 NPB regular season, nine DeNA home games across three series were held without spectators, owing to the spread of COVID-19, through the night game against Hanshin on June 28. To enliven home games, DeNA solicited facial photographs and handwritten messages from fans. At each home game, approximately 5,000 cheering panels containing the photographs and messages were installed in the infield seats. In addition, because interleague play had been canceled as a result of the same circumstances, the opening series against Hiroshima from June 19 to 21 featured “Exchange at Home! Online Hamasta with OB Commentary!”, a joint project with Nippon Life, the title sponsor of interleague play. Applicants among DeNA fans participating in the paid online event through Zoom also had their live video shown at random on the scoreboard's main vision before games and after the end of the top of the seventh inning. The fireworks presentation continued during this period, with the launch location changed to an unoccupied stand.
As noted above, the stadium has been among the smaller outdoor ballparks used as home venues by NPB clubs since the 1990s, and games there are prone to produce home runs that leave the stadium. In regular-season official games hosted by Yokohama Taiyo, Yokohama, and DeNA, beginning with Leroy Stanton of Hanshin in a 1979 game against Hanshin, out-of-stadium home runs have been hit by Tomio Tashiro; Joey Meyer; Leon Lee, for Yokohama Taiyo and Yakult; Glenn Braggs; Norihiko Suzuki; Tyrone Woods; Shuichi Murata, all for Yokohama; Takayuki Kajitani; Yoshitomo Tsutsugo; Jose Lopez; Neftali Soto; Austin, all for DeNA; Rick Lancellotti of Hiroshima; Hideki Matsui and Shinnosuke Abe of the Giants; Akinori Iwamura and Wladimir Balentien of Yakult; Alonzo Powell, Dingo, Leo Gomez, and Zoilo Almonte of Chunichi; Tony Blanco of Chunichi and DeNA; Cecil Fielder, Katsumi Hirosawa, Tomoaki Kanemoto, Craig Brazell, Taiga Nakaya, and Teruaki Sato of Hanshin; Takeshi Yamazaki, Carlos Peguero, Zelous Wheeler, and Randy Ruiz of Rakuten; Wily Mo Pena of Orix; Micah Hoffpauir of Nippon-Ham; and Jimmy Paredes of Lotte. Fielder, Balentien, and Gomez each hit two out-of-stadium home runs in a single game, while Woods, Matsui, Blanco, Leon, and Soto recorded out-of-stadium home runs in multiple games. Blanco hit one each for Chunichi and DeNA, while Leon hit one each for Yokohama Taiyo and Yakult. Pitchers including Balvino Galvez of the Giants and Colby Lewis of Hiroshima, the clubs to which they belonged when recording the out-of-stadium home runs, are also included.
In the Yokohama Taiyo game against Hanshin on August 13, 1989, two of Fielder's three home runs traveled outside the stadium. One of them passed over the park outside the stadium and landed on a road beyond the park.
In the Yokohama game against Yakult on April 29, 2013, two of Balentien's three home runs traveled outside the stadium. The first, hit in the top of the second and passing over the left-field stands, had an estimated distance of 150 meters, while the second, hit in the top of the eighth and passing over the left side of the back screen, had an estimated distance of 160 meters. Immediately before the at-bat in which he hit the second, a security guard outside the stadium reportedly used a loudspeaker to warn passers-by: “Balentien is coming to bat, so please watch out for batted balls!”
In the Yokohama game against the Giants on June 8, 2003, the right-handed Woods hit an estimated 160-meter home run outside the stadium to right-center field off left-handed pitcher Kimiyasu Kudo.
Although not strictly an out-of-stadium home run, when Woods hit a home run off Hideki Irabu in the following game against Hanshin on April 6, 2004, the ball directly struck the top tier of the scoreboard. The point struck by the ball was damaged as a result. In the bottom of the third inning of the game against the Giants on September 21 that year, a ball he hit off Hiroshi Sato struck an iron pillar at the base of the left-field lighting tower, rebounded high into the air, and fell into the left-field stands.
A home run hit by Yamazaki in the Yokohama–Rakuten day game on May 27, 2007, with an estimated distance of approximately 145 meters, traveled to the venue of the Yokohama Port Opening Memorial Bazaar being held outside the stadium in left-center field and struck a Cure Aqua mask being sold at a stall inside the stadium. The mask, depicting one of the main characters of Yes! PreCure 5, was dented but not damaged.
When Sato hit a solo home run off Yuki Kuniyoshi in the top of the sixth inning of the DeNA game against Hanshin on April 9, 2021, the ball passed over the “Hato Sable” sign displayed at the top of the right-field stands and fell onto a passageway outside the stadium. Its estimated distance was 140 meters. In recognition of Sato, who had only joined Hanshin that year, Toshimaya, the manufacturer of Hato Sable, presented him with Hato Sable biscuits through its president, Haruhiko Kubota, a DeNA fan.
In the game against DeNA on May 7, 2021, a ball Sato hit off Taiga Nakagawa in the top of the fourth, his 10th regular-season home run and the fastest such milestone by a rookie to join an NPB club since the draft system was introduced in 1965, bounced up from the top tier of the right-field stands and struck an advertising board installed directly above. From the following day's game in the same series, security staff behind the outfield played the following announcement every time Sato came to bat: “Hanshin's player Sato is now at bat. The batted ball may fly outside the stadium, so please take care.”
The locations passed through or struck by these two balls were near the right-field lighting tower. At the time, Nissan Motor displayed a sign bearing the phrase “Challenge the extraordinary” vertically on the support column of the lighting tower, in reference to its development of electric vehicles.
In 2024, the stadium was initially selected as a venue for the 77th Autumn Kanto High School Baseball Tournament. However, after DeNA secured a place in the Climax Series, a drawing on October 11 limited games held at Yokohama Stadium to the semi-finals and final. When DeNA won the Climax Series and qualified for the Japan Series on October 21, the semi-final and final venues were changed to undecided. Ultimately, as the Japan Series continued through Game 6, the tournament was moved to Hodogaya Baseball Stadium.
Use of the Former Shin-Tsurumi Marshalling Yard Site
In the early 1990s, preparations were made for a bidding procedure with the aim of constructing a new ballpark on the site of the former Shin-Tsurumi Marshalling Yard in the suburbs, but it is said that the plan fell through because no bid was submitted.
Sources
- Wikidata entity Q1148681.
- en.wikipedia, Yokohama Stadium (revision 1363409306), CC BY-SA 4.0.
- ja.wikipedia, 横浜スタジアム (revision 110268342), CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photograph: YokohamaStadium view.jpg on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, by 横浜1978.
