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ES CON Field Hokkaido (エスコンフィールド北海道, Esukon Fīrudo Hokkaidō) is a baseball park under construction in Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido. It will be the future home of the Nippon Professional Baseball's Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and is scheduled to open in March, 2023. It will have a retractable roof and a capacity of 35,000 people. The stadium will be designed and built by HKS Architects and the Obayashi Corporation. The area immediately surrounding the stadium will be developed into Hokkaido Ballpark F Village, containing commercial facilities and restaurants for Fighters fans.

ES CON Field Hokkaido

エスコンフィールド北海道
Render of stadium with roof open
Address	Hokkaido Ballpark F Village, Kyoei
Location	Kitahiroshima, Hokkaido, Japan
Coordinates	42°59′23″N 141°32′58″E
Public transit	JR Hokkaido: Chitose Line at Kita-Hiroshima
Owner	Fighters Sports & Entertainment
Operator	Fighters Sports & Entertainment
Capacity	35,000
Construction
Broke ground	13 April 2020
Architect	HKS Architects
Builder	Obayashi Corporation
Tenants
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (NPB) (2023–)

History

Background

In early 2016, Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) team the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters began considering constructing a new stadium in or around Sapporo.[1] Since first relocating to Sapporo from Tokyo in 2004, the Fighters have played their home games in Sapporo Dome, a multi-purpose stadium. Instead of being owned and operated by the team, the Dome is instead owned by the city of Sapporo and is operated and managed by Sapporo Dome Co., Ltd., a voluntary sector company funded by the city and its community.[2] At the time, Sapporo Dome was charging the Fighters approximately ¥16 million per game to play at the facility in front of a capacity crowd. Annually, the team was spending around ¥1.3 billion to play there. Additionally, Nippon Ham does not make any money on concessions or advertising in the stadium during games.[3] The high rental fees, loss of in-stadium sales revenue, and inflexibility of a multi-purpose facility all contributed to Nippon Ham's decision to explore building their own stadium.[2] The team was considering 15 to 20 sites in Hokkaido as candidates to build their new ballpark, including the campus of Hokkaido University in Kita-ku, Sapporo, the Makomanai district in Minami-ku, Sapporo, and the planned "Kitahiroshima Sports Park" site in Kitahiroshima, a Sapporo suburb.[4]

In December 2016, NPB announced that it set up a task force in collaboration with Nippon Ham to further the new stadium project and have a firm plan in place by March 2018.[5] The following day, the mayor of Kitahiroshima met team representatives to propose its sports park concept. It offered up 20 of the 36 hectares at its "Kitahiroshima Sports Park" site for a natural grass, retractable roof baseball stadium capable of seating 30,000 people. Additionally, the site would be home to an indoor practice field, training facilities, and commercial space.[6] Initially, Sapporo appealed to the team to continue playing at Sapporo Dome, even offering to make the facility a baseball-only stadium. After Nippon Ham continued to pursue new construction and with Kitahiroshima quickly offering up a plan, however, the city quickly began looking for suitable sites for a new stadium to avoid the prospect of the team leaving.[7] Four months later, Sapporo offered up two locations: 10 hectares at Hokkaido University and 13 hectares Toyohira-ku;[8] both sites, however, were quickly deemed unusable due to various circumstances.[9] With negotiations with Kitahiroshima continuing, Sapporo offered a third site by the end of 2017—Makomanai Park. The city proposed redevelopeding 20 hectares of the park into a baseball campus that included restaurants and commercial facilities with the new stadium being built in place of the park's aging Makomanai Open Stadium after its proposed demolition.[10]

As planned, a decision was made the following March with Kitahiroshima's Sports Park site being chosen as the home of the Fighters' new ballpark.[3] Concerns regarding the conservation of Makomanai Park's natural environment and opposition from local residents played a part in the decision not to redevelop the area.[3][11] Furthermore, Kitahiroshima's larger, 36-hectares location provided more space to construct the stadium and its planned surrounding facilities.[11] The city also agreed pay for the cost of infrastructure development, lease the land to Nippon-Ham free of charge, and exempt the ballpark and other park facilities from property tax and city planning tax for 10 years.[3][11]

Development and construction

The Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters and Major League Baseball's (MLB) Texas Rangers announced a partnership agreement in early 2018. At the time, the Rangers were constructing a new ballpark, Globe Life Field, and they advised the Fighters on their plans to build their new stadium in Hokkaido.[12] Nippon Ham revealed the basic stadium design and further details later that year. The 35,000-seat ballpark was designed by architecture firm HKS, the architect of Globe Life Field, and features a retractable roof and natural grass. Owned and operated by Nippon Ham, its construction is estimated to cost ¥60 billion ($530 million).[13] In January 2020, real estate company ES-Con Japan acquired the naming rights to the stadium, with the surrounding area known as Hokkaido Ballpark F Village.[14]

The ground breaking ceremony for the stadium was held on April 13, 2020.[15] With the stadium planned to be operational for the 2023 NPB season, the Fighters hoped to host opening day at their new facility. The team scheduled to hold the opening day game that year, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, agreed to transfer the game to Nippon-Ham after a year of negotiations.[16]

Design and features

ES CON Field Hokkaido will feature Japan's second retractable stadium roof after Fukuoka PayPay Dome and the first with natural grass. The retractable roof will allow for the ballpark to be completely enclosed during Hokkaido's cold, snowy winters. The large, transparent "glass wall" on the outfield-side of the stadium will help to support a grass field when the roof is closed. The roof's high peak is meant to be reminiscent of a traditional Hokkaido home.[13]

In addition to being only the fifth grass field in NPB, it will also be only field other than Mazda Stadium to have an asymmetrical outfield wall.[13] Sapporo Dome, which is also used as a soccer stadium, has approximately twice as much foul territory as other NPB stadiums. In comparison, ES CON Field's field of play will be 15% smaller than at Sapporo Dome. The distance from home plate to the backstop will be 15 meters.[17]

A five-story building dubbed "Tower 11" for the number that both Yu Darvish and Shohei Ohtani wore during their tenures with the Fighters will stand beyond the left field seats.[18] The facility includes seating, a bar, an onsen hot spring sauna, and a hotel, and is planned to be open year-round including on non-game days.[19] While the Eagles' Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi in Sendai features lodging accommodations onsite, ES-CON Field's hotel will be the first ballpark in Japan to have rooms that overlook the field, similar to the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada.[20][19] It will have twelve rooms capable of accommodating a total of 54 people[19]

The stadium would also feature 2 86x16 video displays on each stand on 1st and 3rd base.

On the main entrance at the 1st base side would be a plaza named Fighters Legend Square, a symbol of continuity of the past and future. It would have "Ebetsu Bricks" engraved of names of fans and legends of the Fighters like Sho Nakata, Trey Hillman, Shohei Othani, Yu Darvish, Haruki Nishikawa, Hideki Kuriyama, etc. Until December 20, 2021, fans could purchase the rights to have their name engraved on one of the Ebetsu Bricks to be placed in Fighters Legend Square. This is similar to other stadiums that did this in the past, like Petco Park, in which fans could purchase bricks which would be placed outside the concourse to commemorate them.

Outside the park, in F Village, there would be an farm area, which would be an agricultural area using state-of-the-art agricultural technologies from Kubota. Hokkaido University would be a technical exhibition partner.

ES-CON Japan, aside from getting the naming rights, would also build a luxury apartment named "Le Jade Hokkaido Ball Park", which would be 2 14-story high rise residences. Residents will also be given a free 10 year annual pass to the stadium.[21]

ES CON Field will have one of the largest indoor and outdoor playgrounds which would be built by Bournelund, a company based out of Shibuya, Tokyo, that makes indoor playground equipment. The playground would be divided to different zones for preschoolers to upper grades of elementary so they can play safely and securely.

The ballpark would also have a flagship store which will have the largest footprint ever in its history. It would have a unique shopping experience that would touch on the history and content of the stadium, which can only be experienced at the store.

A miniature version of the ballpark would be built outside in F Village. It would be built because they hope that "a future Fighter" would born from the children that would play at the miniature park.

The stadium would also have a wide concourse with an uninterrupted view of the field.

The stadium would also have VIP rooms and lounge services that provide high quality-service for guests who want a higher quality experience like watching games and gourmet food.

It was announced that by 2024, there will be a senior home in the southeast corner, alongside a medical mall. Also, by April 2023, a new child care support center would be opened next to the farm area.

There would also be a restaurant on the center field wall overlooking the field, which will serve originally brewed craft beer. The restaurant will be open throughout the year, even on days when the Fighters are not playing or are out of town.

Access

Currently, Kita-Hiroshima Station on Hokkaido Railway Company's Chitose Line is the closest train station to the stadium. In anticipation of the opening of ES CON Field in 2023, the west exit of the station is being expanded and a shuttle bus terminal is being added to provide access directly to the stadium from the station.[22] With the walk from Kita-Hiroshima Station to the stadium being approximately 20 minutes, a tentative plan to build a new station closer to ballpark with bridge directly connecting the two was announced in 2019. The earliest it could open, however, would be 2027, five years after the anticipated opening of ES CON Field.[23] The Fighters’ stadium is also expected to have parking for 3,000 to 4,000 vehicles, unusual for ballparks in Japan which generally rely solely on public transportation.[13]

References

External links

• Official website (in Japanese)

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