Shigeo Hidaritomo: On Engaging in the Professional Sports Business

It has been 20 years since I began managing clubs in the J.League soccer league. Since I spent 22 years at Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., where I worked after graduating from university, nearly half of my career has been in the sports business field.

The first club where I held a management position after leaving Nissan was Yokohama Marinos, a Nissan subsidiary. There, we became annual champions several times and grew the company over six years. Once that reached a milestone, I served in management for six years at Shonan Bellmare in the same Kanagawa Prefecture, then five years at Shimizu S-Pulse in Shizuoka Prefecture. I am now in my second year as president of Kataller Toyama.

Since coming to the J.League, I have worked mostly on one-year fixed-term employment contracts, just like the managers and players. Compared to my time at Nissan, it has been a rather tense and nerve-wracking form of employment to choose, but looking back, I believe that always working on the edge has allowed me to gain irreplaceable experiences and comrades.

When working for a J.League club, I feel there is a strong tendency for public interest to focus on the top team's wins and losses, championships, promotions, and battles to avoid relegation. Indeed, the content covered by media such as sports news and newspapers is almost entirely related to these match results. Furthermore, in terms of company management, if the team wins, ticket and merchandise revenue grows, creating a stable upward trend. Conversely, if losses pile up, the speed of growth slows down. This phenomenon is very difficult to resist in the world of sports business.

However, recently, various initiatives such as soccer schools for children and programs for the elderly and people with disabilities have been recognized by local companies, leading to many sponsorships. I am happy to see that Japanese companies' awareness of social contribution has matured to that extent.

Winning matches and spending enjoyable time with local residents through club activities outside of matches carry equal weight for me as a manager. I believe the most important thing in this profession is for local residents to acknowledge that "it's good to have Kataller Toyama in this town." Therefore, winning is not the ultimate goal, but a means to an end. I believe the true purpose is to enrich the daily lives of the community, and I feel strongly that without such a conviction, one cannot stay in this job for long.