Nippon Professional Baseball brought back spectators to stadiums last month, after initially holding this season's games without spectators to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Currently up to 5,000 spectators are allowed at a game, and baseball fans are asked to keep their social distance from others and to refrain from yelling as a form of cheering to help prevent the spread of the infection.
Many are working on new ways to enjoy the games outside the physical stadium -- and to generate revenue -- in professional baseball.
--30,000 online spectators
The Yokohama DeNA BayStars and telecommunications giant KDDI Corp. launched a virtual stadium experience project called "Virtual Hamasta." They held a trial run on Aug. 11.
The system allowed baseball fans to create avatars that would gather at the virtual stadium, where a real game was shown on a big screen and grand fireworks were set off after a home run.
Fans were able to enjoy the virtual experience during the team's game against the Hanshin Tigers at Yokohama Stadium, affectionately called Hamasta, by controlling their avatars through their smartphones or computers at home, and other places. They left comments of joy or happiness using the system's chat feature.
"It was very important to visualize how people can cheer" for their favorite team, a KDDI official said. The system also had a function of allowing visitors to express their feelings by applauding alongside other avatars or taking a picture. It helped create a sense of unity that might have been experienced at the actual ballpark.
More than 30,000 people participated in the free trial. The real Yokohama Stadium can accommodate about 34,000 people, but cannot be filled to that capacity because of the pandemic. The virtual stadium's "ability to pull in visitors," therefore, serves as an attractive means for baseball businesses.
--A robot's help
In July, in cooperation with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, advertising giant Dentsu Inc. conducted a demonstration at the Sapporo Dome using a robot equipped with a 360-degree camera. The experiment can be regarded as a milestone in the birth of a new sports business in that it could allow people to enjoy the game outside the ballpark.
By remotely controlling the 80-centimeter-tall robot installed next to the third-base bench, baseball fans can see the pitcher on the mound and players on the bench, for example. They can also clap and talk with others on the screen.
A significant decline in stadium attendance will deal a serious blow to baseball team management since ticket revenues form the basis of the operation. Katsuhiro Miyamoto, a professor emeritus at Kansai University and an expert on sports economics, estimated as of June the economic loss professional baseball will experience due to the pandemic will be around 72 billion yen. However, Miyamoto has revised it downward.
"The loss will exceed 100 billion yen if the number of spectators will remain to be limited to 5,000," he said.
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