It has been a long time since I last wrote anything that wasn’t a match day preview or report so I thought I’d take a moment to write a quick entry concerning the attendance levels for FC Ryukyu. For those of you that don’t know, FC Ryukyu have 2 home games remaining this season and there was a recent Tweet by Club President, Subaru Mikami, issuing a challenge to reach 100,000 total fans for the season. FC Ryukyu currently sit at 88,484, or 11,516 fans shy of the 100,000 mark. That means FC Ryukyu will need to average 5,758 fans over their next two games to achieve this feat. The question then becomes, can they realistically achieve that number?

FC Ryukyu by the Numbers

These tables indicate that fans only pack the Tapic Kenso Hiyagon Stadium on rare, special occasions. The inaugural J2 game for FC Ryukyu, the tilt against well known, and well followed Kashiwa Reysol and of course, Shinji Ono’s debut were the 3 highest attended games this season. FC Ryukyu’s record in those matches was 1W1D1L. The Yokohama FC match represented roughly 14% of the total amount of fans to attend all season for FC Ryukyu with the top 3 combined accounting for 30%.

Number of Fans	Times this Season FCR hit this mark
10,000 – 15,000	1
7,000 – 9,999	2
4,000 – 6,999	5
0-3,999	11

The three lowest attended matches were Ehime FC, V-Varen Nagasaki and Kagoshima United FC. The weather forecast called for high winds and rain against Ehime and could be the reason why so few attended. The Nagasaki match was on the heels of a 6-game losing streak by FC Ryukyu and the Kagoshima match also followed 3 straight losses for the club. FC Ryukyu’s record in the lowest attended matches, 3 wins and 0 losses. Not to mention that the Nagasaki match was the greatest come for behind victory for the club this season.

In another strange occurrence. It seems that the clubs performance has no direct correlation between the amount of people that attend, at least on paper. For example, during FC Ryukyu’s home unbeaten run this season (10 games) they averaged 4,620 fans while going 5 wins, 4 draws and suffering the one loss that snapped the streak. In the 9 home games since, FC Ryukyu average 4,698 fans with 3 wins, 1 draw and 5 losses. Of course the largest game attended all season is in there but if we removed it, FC Ryukyu averaged something closer to 3,800. This would indicate that at least 1,000 of the more casual fans who rarely attend games, isn’t going to attend if the team is performing poorly.

There is another aspect to this, albeit a small one, but one of slight importance to the overall numbers. And that is the number of away fans who attend. Unfortunately, I don’t have any way of knowing how many away fans attend each match as all the attendance numbers are lumped together for just an overall total on the J League website. I assume the club knows this based on entry gates but if opposing teams’ fans mix in with the home crowd in the S-Section at the stadium, then those numbers will also be inaccurate.

As mentioned earlier, FC Ryukyu will need to average 5,758 fans per game to reach the 100,000 mark. That is 1,101 more fans than they normally average. Outside of the top 3 attended matches all season, FC Ryukyu only came close to that number on two occasions (Albirex Niigata & FC Gifu). The make or break match for FC Ryukyu to hit the 100k mark will be the upcoming fixture against Omiya Ardija. First, I am going to assume that Omiya will have a nice traveling contingent of fans this Sunday as the games start time of 1300 should allow for most of the Tokyo based fans to schedule a departing flight from Naha on Sunday evening. Second, the club has been promoting the MONGOL800 band that is set to perform just prior to kickoff and this could result in more of the casual fans, as well as fans of the band itself, possibly attending the fixture. I feel that the final fixture against Kyoto Sanga will be largely attended if for no other reason that it is the final home game this year. I hope I am right in that regards.

Future challenges for the club

While it was encouraging to see more people attend FC Ryukyu games this season compared to seasons past, FC Ryukyu will need to be even more involved in off-season promotions and signings with its marketing campaign to combat the popularity of basketball and new baseball team starting in 2020 in Okinawa. There are several forces acting against FC Ryukyu and I will list them out below:

1. Discretionary Income Spending: It seems that only on rare occasions will Okinawa based fans attend a particular match. If FC Ryukyu were averaging something closer to 7,500 for their games this wouldn’t be an issue but since we are not even filling half the stadium on average, not many people are coming to watch FC Ryukyu on a consistent basis. This is a big issue and one that needs to be the focus of effort in a concentrated marketing plan by the club. If we assume that a family of 4 will spend roughly 4,000-7,500 YEN per game, I can see why they will only attend a few games all season. The club does promote free entry dates for residents of certain towns and municipalities around the island as well as particular last names but that hasn’t had the intended affect as evidenced by the overall numbers. Heck the Renofa Yamaguchi match was touted as a free entry for people with the last name Higa, which I believe is the most popular last name in Okinawa, and it was one of eight matches that failed to eclipse the 4,000 mark.

2. Direct competitors on Island are strengthening and increasing: The Ryukyu Golden Kings have several advantages over FC Ryukyu when it comes to drawing in fans for games. First, they have a climate-controlled arena in which fans never have to worry about the weather. Second, basketball is a hugely popular sport here in Okinawa and the construction of the new Okinawa Arena, that will host the 2023 FIBA World Championship, is going to draw large amounts of people, especially if tickets are cheaper than FC Ryukyu. It will have 10,000 seats, similar to the Tapic Kenso Hiyagon Stadium where FC Ryukyu currently play, but I cannot see the Kings charging the same price for tickets that is on their website for the 2019/20 season.

The Ryukyu Blue Oceans is the newly created Okinawa baseball team that will play outside the NPB in 2020 with the intent to be a fully-fledged member of the NPB once the NPB expands it cap on expansion teams. While FC Ryukyu only have to compete with the Golden Kings for fans during a short period where their respective seasons overlap, the baseball season directly overlaps with football here in Japan. This means FC Ryukyu need to be sprinting to get 7,500 fans before they are playing matches on the same day as both the baseball and basketball teams. I personally cannot see how the island can support 3 professional teams, especially with two of them playing in 10,000 seat stadiums with the possibility of the baseball team playing in the 30,000 seat Cellular Stadium in Naha.  I am not sure if that is where the Blue Oceans will play, but it makes the most sense as far as existing infrastructure and concentration of the population. That is the same area for the newly proposed FC Ryukyu stadium as well. The parking and traffic will be a nightmare down there if Ryukyu and the Blue Oceans both have home games on the same day. This also assumes that FC Ryukyu have built and are playing in their new stadium, somehting for which ground has yet to be broken

The Way Forward

In the short term, FC Ryukyu would do well to have some sort of fan appreciation day in conjunction with the final game of the season. This is usually the case around most leagues and clubs will usually do something special for the fans on the final home game of the season. There are many things that could be done such as; giving away free merchandise to all that enter or throwing t-shirts/soccer balls into the stands. It could be in the form of allowing fans onto the pitch to mingle with players after the match and stay for an extended period of time for autographs/photos. It would also be great to have those FC Ryukyu players that are injured or not dressed in the reserves, to sit in the stands with the fans and watch the last game.

The next step for FC Ryukyu is to have a strong off-season marketing campaign. There will be the inevitable shifting of players and much needed time off for those that will return, but FC Ryukyu cannot simply drop off the radar when it comes to community engagement events, and press releases. We are really talking about a period of roughly 60 days before the 2020 training camp opens and about 90 days between the end of the 2019 season and start of the 2020 season. One major event, would be a ground breaking event for the new stadium or training ground that can be attended by fans and players alike.

The long-term goal of having the new football only stadium has to be seen through and needs to have some visible movement forward right now.  There only seems to be an unfunded proposal which is nothing more than a fantasy at this point. When money is put towards the project and shovels have hit the dirt, then we can expect to see an uptick in season ticket numbers. We know the club has had several meetings concerning the dreams of reaching the J1, as well as earned their J1 license, but there was talk that FC Ryukyu were not meeting a lot of the expectations for keeping them in the J2. The recent town hall meeting showcasing the new stadium had this bombshell dropped on the fans and it would be catastrophic to this club if they had relegation forced on them and would set them back at least a decade. I am not sure if this is tied to the amount of fans FC Ryukyu are averaging each match or that they do not have their own stadium/training ground. In either case, the alarm has been sounded and actions to remedy the problems must be conducted immediately.

Conclusion

While a majority of this article seems like a regurgitation of a prior op-ed piece, I wrote way back at the start of the season, I should also mention that the club has executed some small incremental steps this season that will have further reaching benefits for seasons to come. The atmosphere in and around the stadium is far better this season compared to seasons past. There are noticeable changes of seating at pitch level, vendors inside and outside the grounds and a much better marketing campaign. This all has to be done within the financial constraints facing the club, which is no small task. They are averaging around 1,000 more fans per game than they probably budgeted for at the start of the season and could you imagine the things the club could achieve if they averaged 7,000 fans per game? We as the fans would also be reaping the benefits of a financially stronger club in both the short and long terms. Could even mean larger kit sizes (3/4/5L) someday.

In any event, the competition for our discretionary income by the 3 professional sports clubs on the island will become very tight in the near future. Each will be competing for a very small, limited pool of fans that can attend matches on a regular basis. FC Ryukyu needs to find ways to grab as large of a slice as they can from this pie and it starts with two things. It means building a beautiful, unique, and technologically advanced stadium in addition to appealing to the large contingent of foreigners visiting and living on the island. The stadium should be a destination that people want to visit, have a phenomenal experience and return too on several occasions.

And oh yeah, I think it is realistic that FC Ryukyu hit the 100,000 fan mark for the season.