Baseball fans and konkatsu
Posted on: July 12, 2009
July 11th and 12th Nippon Ham vs Lotte game in Sapporo baseball stadium…
The studio was full of female watching the male audiences, not the baseball game in the stadium. “Konkatsu seats,” or baseball watching in the baseball stadium was organized by baseball team Nippon Ham to give an opportunity for baseball fans to meet potential partners during baseball game.
Originally, they had availability of 400 seats for the two days, but due to the increasing number of applicants, Nippon Ham increased the number of availability to 600. 2860 single men and women applied for the Konkatsu seats, and the lucky 600 were able to join the game on the July 11th and again on 12th. The konkatsu seats enjoyed all sorts of entertainment in addition to the baseball game.
The weekend began with 11am at the reception area for the baseball stadium. Before the start of the game, the 300 boys and girls (all have to be over 18) together raised their flags and cheered for the victory of Nippon Ham. During the game, the boys were asked to rotate their seats to meet as many women as possible. The baseball day ends with a lottery where a random couples (with matching cards) win trip to vacation, pair baseball tickets, pair baseball t-shirts and they have to search for the matching partner with the matching card to win the prize. But the biggest prize prepared for the audiences was a chance to throw at the opening pitch ceremony… IF you marry the partner you met in the Konkatsu seat… that is. The fever and excitement in the konkatsu seat were shown in the center TV screen in the stadium, and even the players themselves could not help paying attention to what’s going on in the audience seat.
The news reports that out of the 600 bachelors and bacheloretts, on Saturday the 11th, 28 couples went home happily hand in hand, and 34 couples went home happily on the following day. Due to great success and overwhelming popularity, Nippon Ham is already planning a second round of Konkatsu game for the summer.
What do you think?