Soccer J-League “Audience Ban” with Corona watching style

Soccer J League "Audience Ban" With Corona watching style July 13 15:03

From last weekend, professional sports started holding games with an audience of up to 5,000 people.
At the soccer J.League match venue, we are looking for new spectator styles of the “With Corona” era, such as taking infectious measures such as temperature measurement and disinfection, and making unique efforts to ask the audience for cooperation. It was

Thorough measures Limited support

The J-League resumed the official game with no spectators in late June after a break of about four months. Then, starting from the 10th of this month, according to the policy of the government, we moved to holding the spectator with a maximum of 5000 people.
In accordance with guidelines developed under the supervision of infectious disease specialists, in addition to wearing a mask, spectators are required to take a thermometer and disinfectant when entering the stadium.

Seats are spaced at regular intervals to maintain social distance.
Furthermore, in order to prevent infections due to flying or contact, support during the game is restricted, and loud vocals, singing songs, high-touch and shoulder-shoulding 3 Swinging towels and flags are prohibited.

Have fun and follow the rules

Unlike before, the game is held with many restrictions. I was impressed by the fact that each club made various efforts to cooperate with infection control.

At the stadium in Kawasaki Frontale, the actual foot prints of the athletes were printed on the ground near the entrance gate with a distance of 1 meter or more.
While waiting for the opening, the aim was to have a fun social distance, and those who visited the game watched the characteristics of the feet of the players who make vivid shoots and passes with great interest. It was

Urawa Reds is also working to create a huge team flag by covering more than 60,000 home stadium seats with red, white and black plastic bags. We also asked the spectators to give out bags with colors that match the designated seating locations and participate in the production of the flag.

Innovative in away games

VISSEL KOBE has launched a new innovation because away seats are not currently set up to limit the audience.
For the first time in the J League, we held "Drive-in Public Viewing" in a parking lot of a large commercial facility in Kobe, where we could enjoy watching a game with a large vision and live radio while riding in a car.
When you have scored, you can enjoy the "passing" with the headlights lit up upward in small increments and the "hazard" at the penalty kick opportunity. In addition, a rule was created to move the "wiper" with the meaning that it should be poured into the water when the opponent makes a goal.
Forty pairs of families and friends who won the lottery visited the venue.
"Because it's inside the car, I don't have to worry about contacting other people, I can speak out without worrying about other people." "Because the cars around me are the same supporters, I felt a sense of solidarity like a stadium." Clubs were also seeing a new style of watching in away games.

"Applause" is power

The supporters were also trying to enjoy watching the banned stadium while ingenuity.
Although we can't give flashy support to prevent infections, we can wear masks made with the team's bandana as a whole family and hold them in our own seats during the period of self-restraint in order to support the players as much as possible. I was preparing a small flag.
Some people brought a lot of stuffed club mascots to put in their vacant seats, and others worried about what kind of support style would be desirable, and some people packed 14 goods into the bag. I was there.

The applause of the supporters caught my eye. Usually, it's easy to get drowned out by cheering songs and noises, but during the weekend's games, every good player played was sent generously.
At times, I was sent to my opponents, and I felt that not only did I cheerfully support my favorite team, but also a new sense of value in watching games was created, in which I enjoyed soccer purely.
The players also say that the applause has become a big force.

Frontale captain Shogo Taniguchi said after the match, ``I was asked to come to the stadium in a situation where I couldn't speak out very much due to its unique atmosphere, but he responded with applause. I thought it was all right and the audience I felt really happy to have a game in front of him."

Reds goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa said, "Although there is a limit on the number of people, I was able to fight for 90 minutes while feeling applause and watching over everyone. Without supporters I think the way I enter is different, and I think that everyone is injecting power while helping,” he recalled.

The rigor that cannot be foreseen

It looks like you've taken a good step, but there are some numbers that you are interested in.
Of the nine J1 matches, 5,000 were capped, with nearly half of the spectators having less than 4,000.
For the supporters, it was expected that the tickets would be sold out in no time because the tickets were sold mainly at fan clubs in the long-awaited match.
However, as each club heard a voice saying, “It wasn't selling as well as I expected,” even last year's championship Yokohama F. Marinos sold out unexpectedly the night before the match.

There are still unpredictable situations, such as the number of new infections confirmed in Tokyo exceeding 200 people every day.
The audience had mixed feelings.

“I bought a ticket because I thought it was safe because there was a space between the seats, but I was afraid to move to the venue and used the car.”
“I have both feelings of anxiety and anxiety. I'm thinking about both protecting the car and keeping it from others, so I'd like to decide whether to come when the number of spectators increases in the future depending on the situation.

'' Maybe you may not be able to experience the excitement.
In the J League, if the policy of the government does not change, the policy is to relax the maximum number of spectators to about half of the capacity of the stadium from the next month, but the reality is severe.

Sharing wisdom and doing the best

The search for the J League and each club will continue in order to survive the exceptional season.
On the other hand, the weekend game, which was lifted, gave us a lot of hints about new spectator styles during the "With Corona" era.
It is expected that we will not only take thorough infection control measures, but also share the wisdom with supporters to create the best possible form.
(Interviewed by: Sports News Department, Reporter Yuuki Takenaka, Emi Suzuki/Osaka Bureau Press Department, Tomohisa Konno)