Sad news for the Tiger Party! Hanshin Farm’s new stadium is in danger of “Koshien and jet balloons completely disappearing” due to SDGs.

The Hanshin baseball team is now hard at work at its spring training camp in Ginoza Village, Okinawa Prefecture, in preparation for the “AREMPA” (ARE + consecutive championships). The team’s success in winning Japan’s first championship in 38 years last season has brought in many fans from all over the country every day. However, the “specialty” of the camp is in danger of disappearing completely.

Carp fans are the best in Japan! (by Tatsuru Igawa, published by Nansha), the first time professional baseball fans flew jet balloons at a ballpark was on May 13, 1978, at the game between the Hanshin and Hiroshima baseball teams at Koshien Stadium. It was not Hanshin fans but Hiroshima fans who flew them. Later, Hanshin fans started flying them, too, and they are still flying them today,” said a baseball team official.

The jet balloon flying has a history of more than 40 years, but in fact, it has not flown in the skies of Koshien even once in the last few years.

In fact, it has not flown in the skies of Koshien for several years. “It was banned following the spread of the new coronavirus in 2008. The word ‘aerosol’ became widely known because of the COVID-19 crisis. There are quite a few fans who do not like the flying of jet balloons, so it seems that the COVID-19 crisis was an opportunity for them to take a step in the right direction and stop the practice.

Rakuten, which, like Hanshin, had banned the flying of jet balloons, announced that it would permit the use of jet balloons inflated by pumping air into them from the season’s opening game.　Seibu, Hiroshima, Softbank and others have also lifted the ban since the middle of last season or this season. It is tempting to expect that Hanshin will also start to lift the ban on the use of jet balloons at ……, but the opposite is the case.

Hanshin will move its second baseball stadium and facilities in Naruohama, Nishinomiya City, to Oda Minami Park in Amagasaki City in ’25. The company will install solar power generation and storage batteries, utilize waste power generation, and thoroughly conserve energy to achieve a “decarbonized” society. The park will be developed and operated as a “zero-carbon baseball park” that is environmentally friendly by collecting plastic bottles and plastic cups, recycling, and utilizing rainwater and wells.

The team operating such an eco-friendly ballpark cannot allow a large number of jet balloons, which cannot be recycled and end up in the garbage, to be flown. No one can go against the wishes of the team’s parent company, which is promoting the “Tiger Hole,” with a total construction cost of 10 billion yen.

Until now, the second-team games held at Naruohama Stadium have been free of charge, but after the relocation to Amagasaki, the team aims to make it a viable entertainment venue by switching to a pay-per-view system. The goal is to make the Zero Carbon Baseball Park a success and to make use of it in the operation of Koshien Stadium, so it is unlikely that jet balloon cheering will be revived.

It seems that this exhilarating “specialty” will disappear with the times.