Hokkaido Ballpark F Village is scheduled to open in Kitahiroshima City, Hokkaido during 2023. The project involves both the construction of a new stadium for the professional baseball team Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, and the development of the community in the surrounding area.
The project is being undertaken by Fighters Sports & Entertainment Co., Ltd., a joint venture set up in 2019. Funding for the venture and project is being provided by Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters Baseball Club Co., Ltd., NH Foods Ltd., Organization for Promoting Urban Development, and Dentsu Inc., which company is involved in the project.
Loved by Baseball Fans and Local Residents
The term “ballpark” describes an integrated space that contains a baseball stadium and surrounding amenities, including hotels, restaurants, and entertainment venues. This concept can be seen in some Major League Baseball stadiums in the United States.
Inspired by the idea of integrating the ballpark with the surrounding neighborhood, we will also bear in mind the need for community development and community building in the area surrounding the new stadium.
The Nippon-Ham Fighters came up with the idea of having a ballpark in Hokkaido, because the space could be enjoyed by others besides baseball fans. Further, the team was inspired to build the ballpark there in response to issues surrounding the nation’s declining population and the depopulation of rural areas. The Fighters aim to join forces with their surrounding communities and make F Village a friendly presence for all local residents, including those who are not baseball fans.
Building a Jointly Created Space
Dentsu became involved in the F Village Project from the start. Immediate participation made sense, because the Fighters had decided that the project would focus on setting up a jointly created space.
Accordingly, Dentsu formulated a plan to provide such a space by coordinating with several companies and local government organizations. As the Fighters had never undertaken a community development project before, the team decided to work with a number of partners, including corporations and local municipalities.
However, the Fighters recognized the need to create a link among the many partners that would be involved, at the same time realizing that maintaining a common strategy among those involved would become increasingly difficult as their numbers grew.
It was thus that the team decided to include Dentsu in the project, due to the company’s extensive networking and coordination abilities.
Sports-centered Community Development
to Address Education and the Elderly
Dentsu has also recognized the great significance of the F Village Project. Not only were we excited by the opportunity to be involved in such a grand community development enterprise, but we felt it was full of potential because of its focus on sports.
We understood that sports education can be used to benefit local children, while the availability of a new facility could help provide a fresh change of pace for senior citizens. By participating in the project, Dentsu felt it could contribute to the development of new types of stadiums, new ways of watching sporting events, and new methods of community development.
Sports-related business has changed dramatically over the past few years. Fees for various rights—most notably broadcast rights—have skyrocketed, and major overseas media that distribute sports content have expanded their market shares in Japan. We thus realized the importance of beginning to establish a new business model that differs from the models conventionally applied in sports-related business and is based on sponsorships and broadcast rights.
Visualizing the Village We Aim to Create
A joint venture was established between the four companies— Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters Baseball Club Co., Ltd., NH Foods Ltd., Organization for Promoting Urban Development, and Dentsu Inc.—and the F Village Project began. As the number of partners that would collaborate in conducting community development increased, and as ideas were exchanged regarding the type of space that should be created, we decided to create a single picture—a future vision—of the town we wanted to construct. This picture would allow us to visualize the town we wanted to build.
The project involves many individuals, each of whom has a strong sense of the type of village they would like to see created. Were we to even try to follow all the criteria, we would end up with a disorderly and scattershot community.
While to achieve a sense of cohesion, all the partners must share a common image, no matter how the image is described in words, each person inevitably will visualize something different. It is thus that we decided to use a single illustration.
The picture is by no means a mere illusion; it shows what we believe is realistically possible and technically feasible. It is based on workshop discussions with our partners.
The Experience We Want to Provide
We have developed a vision that we plan to achieve for the area as we create F Village, and found two words that express our objectives.
As we set about creating the ballpark, we must share with our partners our goal in terms of the customer experience: what we want visitors to feel and encounter. We believe that communicating our vision of what F Village will provide in words will help ensure the ballpark’s success.
Following a long series of discussions, we decided to use PLAY HUMAN as the catchphrase to describe our vision for the area. Taking into consideration the ideas of the baseball team and all the partners involved, we believe that the ballpark should be a place where people can both act like humans and feel human.
We decided to make this ballpark contribute more to the well-being of its visitors than any other location. It should be a place where fans can enthusiastically support the Fighters, while fans and non-fans can foster tomorrow’s vitality and simply experience the joy of living by having a good time or chatting with friends.
Outlining Benefits of Moving to Hokkaido
Once the course of the F Village Project had been decided and associated activities were underway, the next challenge emerged, namely, securing human resources.
Due to the large size of the project and the fact that it is greatly different from anything related to conventional baseball team management, the team said it wished to recruit personnel from a broad range of backgrounds, extending beyond sports.
Therefore, we began to consider a recruitment plan that would allow us to reach out to personnel with expertise in areas other than baseball. At the same time, we realized the need to eliminate a major recruitment hurdle: the need for newly recruited personnel to move to Hokkaido. Even if candidates were interested in project-related positions, we felt that they might not be able to convince their families to move, and that resolving this issue would be key to ensuring the project’s success.
To address the issue, we created the Smooth Family Job Change Support Template.
Simply put, the template is a tool that helps applicants address the concerns of their families as they change jobs and move to Hokkaido. Through materials similar to those used in a presentation, the template describes, page by page, the appeal of the F Village Project and the joys of living in Hokkaido.
Some parts of this template describe possibilities associated with sports business in a serious tone, while others convey the benefits of living in Hokkaido in an exaggerated and comical manner.
Through this somewhat unusual recruiting strategy, we hope to draw attention to the project and reach those with expertise in areas outside the world of sports.
Employment offers associated with the project became hot topics, especially on social networking services, so that we received applications from over 5,000 people.
These employment offers were also featured on a nationally televised infotainment program, and this publicity helped us to achieve our goal of receiving applications from candidates with a wide range of backgrounds. We initially had a quota of three hires but ended up hiring eight.
Watching the Game While Soaking in a Sauna
Development is well underway and we are on track to open F Village in March 2023. Current plans include the establishment of guest rooms within the stadium, which will allow visitors to stay overnight while watching games, as well as facilities that will enable them to enjoy baseball games while relaxing in saunas or bathing in hot springs filled with heated groundwater. While subverting preconceived ideas, we are creating an environment that will give visitors the opportunity to experience baseball games in a wide variety of styles. Recently, we announced that a craft beer brewing restaurant would be opened adjacent to the center batter's eye screen. This brewery restaurant, which will be named "Sky and Turf by Yona Yona Ale" (Sora to Shiba by Yona Yona Eru), will be the first in the world to offer a view of an entire baseball field. Dentsu contributed to the restaurant's concept and also helped develop its name and create its logo. Outside of the stadium, we are planning to establish a variety of facilities, including a certified childcare center, residential facilities (living spaces and housing for senior citizens), agricultural learning facilities, and other facilities providing opportunities outdoor activity. The F Village project will not end with the stadium's opening in 2023; community development will continue after the arena's launch.
Through this project, we aim to solve more than just obvious issues currently at hand; we also aim create a new future from the ground up. In other words, planning for this project is focused on future building rather than problem solving. Furthermore, the theme of the F Village project is community development, and while it addresses several SDGs ("4: Quality Education," "11: Sustainable Cities and Communities," and "17: Partnerships for the Goals," etc.), it also aims to stimulate and enrich people's lives, thereby generating positive social impact on both Kitahiroshima and the entire island of Hokkaido. By participating in this project, Dentsu hopes to fulfill its vision of creating value as an Integrated Growth Partner.
Dentsu aims to contribute to the future of Hokkaido in a unique manner made possible by its core values of creativity and networking capabilities.
Inquiries
Dentsu Global Sports Division
Akira Kurata
https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/contactus/
