The Giants are moving their home base away from the Tokyo Dome to the former site of the Tsukiji market.

The “plan” really existed…” said a member of the Yomiuri Group.

A Yomiuri Giants official said he was convinced that the grand project, a long-held dream of the Yomiuri Giants, which had been floated and denied many times, had finally begun to move forward.

It is a plan to relocate their home base to Tsukiji. By building a new stadium on the vast former site of the Tsukiji Market, the Giants will be able to fulfill their long-held dream of having their own stadium. The Tokyo Dome currently in use is owned by “Tokyo Dome Corporation” under Mitsui Fudosan. The Giants pay an estimated annual usage fee of more than 2.5 billion yen, as well as a portion of the merchandise revenue, which is estimated to exceed 100 million yen per game. If the Giants had their own ballpark, they would be able to float those huge expenses. The team’s management will be more stable.

The relocation will not only improve the profit margin.

The Tokyo Dome opened in 1988 and is deteriorating. In 2010, a major renovation was carried out at an investment of 10 billion yen, but it is doubtful if it can withstand decades of use in the future” (sports newspaper desk).

The site of Tsukiji Market is just a short walk from Tsukiji Ichiba Station on the Toei Oedo Line. It is also within walking distance from Tsukiji Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line and Higashi Ginza Station on the Hibiya and Toei Asakusa Lines. It covers an area of approximately 20 hectares, or about four times the size of the Tokyo Dome (see photo above). There is no other location in Tokyo as convenient as this.

In 2005, Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike announced her plan to turn the site into a “food theme park,” and the project was temporarily left in limbo. However, on September 7 of this year, we learned that a special purpose company (SPC) led by Mitsui Fudosan had submitted a redevelopment plan to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to build a hotel, offices, and a multipurpose stadium at an investment of 800 to 900 billion yen. In addition to major general contractors such as Taisei Corporation, the Yomiuri Shimbun Group, the parent company of the Yomiuri Giants, is also participating in this SPC. I see this multipurpose stadium as the new home of the Giants. There is talk of using natural grass and making it a retractable, all-weather stadium.

We asked the Yomiuri Giants about relocating to Tsukiji, but were unable to get a response within the deadline.

We hope they will come up with a cooler name than “Tsukiji Dome” and welcome new manager Hideki Matsui, 49, as the new manager to kick off the new stadium. The dream is only getting bigger. …… Well?

From the October 6, 2023 issue of FRIDAY