The men’s basketball B-League has announced the teams that will participate in the new “B-League Premier,” which will be established from the year after next (2026) to replace the current top category B1, and 22 teams, including the Kobe Stokes, have been approved to participate. .
The men’s basketball B League held a press conference in Tokyo on the 17th and announced the 22 teams that will participate in the new “B League Premier,” which will be established from 2026 to replace the current top category B1.
Kobe Stokes officials watched the press conference online from a hotel venue in Kobe, and shared their joy by shaking hands when the club’s name was called.
Last year, Kobe Stokes met the requirements for entry by having sales of over 1.2 billion yen, average attendance per game of 3,047 people, and securing an arena with approximately 10,000 seats. That’s it.
At a press conference held after the event, Jun Shibuya, president of the club’s management company, said, “I don’t think anyone expected Kobe Stokes to be able to join.We want to do our best with the mindset that we’re starting from last place.” ” he said.
In addition, Kobe City native and captain Shota Watanabe said, “I think this result was due to the cooperation of so many people that I can’t even imagine.As we prepare for the new league, we want to start winning again this season.” ” he said with enthusiasm.
[What is Kobe Stokes]
Stokes was founded in 2011 as the first professional basketball team in Hyogo Prefecture.
Before joining the B League in 2016, the team changed its name from “Hyogo Stokes” to “Nishinomiya Stokes” based in Nishinomiya City, and in 2017 won the second division (B2) and was promoted to B1. He was relegated after one season.
Last year (2023), the team moved its base from Nishinomiya City to Kobe City and changed its team name to “Kobe Stokes.”
From April next year, the team will be based at the multipurpose arena “G LION ARENA KOBE”, which is currently under construction at Kobe Port.
The reason for this move to Kobe was the creation of a new league, the “B League Premier,” which will begin in 2026, the year after next.
“B League Premier” will abolish the current categorization that emphasizes competitive performance with the aim of contributing more to the local community, ▽ We will develop a home arena that can accommodate more than 5,000 people, ▽ Average attendance per game The main entry conditions were that the number of employees be 3,000 or more and sales be 1.2 billion yen or more.
For this reason, Kobe Stokes management has worked to strengthen not only its military strength but also its management capabilities.
[The challenge is to strengthen management capabilities]
For Kobe Stokes, which has decided to enter the “B League Premier,” the challenge will be how to improve its management capabilities in the future.
For a club to operate stably, operating profits such as sponsorship income and ticket sales must exceed operating expenses such as players’ annual salaries, travel expenses, and arena usage fees.
According to disclosed financial statements, including those from the previous Nishinomiya Stokes era, the final profits in the past five years up to FY2022 were ▼1,070,000 yen in FY2018 and ▼120,000 yen in FY2021. It remains at yen and twice.
On the other hand, the deficit was approximately 200 million yen in fiscal 2020 and approximately 130 million yen in fiscal 2022, making stable management an issue.
One of the pillars that supports the club’s profits is its ability to attract customers.
Except for the season affected by the new coronavirus, the average number of attendees per game remained in the 1,000 range, but in the last fiscal year (2023), when the team moved its base to Kobe, it rose to 3,047. , achieved one of the requirements for entry into the B League Premier: “an average attendance of 3,000 people per game.”
However, compared to past seasons, more spectators were invited to home games for free last year, which seems to have pushed up the number of attendees for the year.
Attention to professional basketball is increasing due to the excitement of the Olympics and the World Cup, but the key to stable operations will be whether we can further increase the number of fans and increase the ability to attract customers through community-based activities. is.
