Question on Franchise Strengths

Financially, the Lions' Tsutsumi-owner is a very compentent businessman who knows how to manage a business. While the team is an advertising tool to the Seibu Group, my understanding is that Tsutsumi runs it like any other department and doesn't accept it as a money pit.

Also, Hiroshima's owner (I can't think of his name as he doesn't appear in the press too often) runs the team like a "mom and pop shop" from what I understand. While Hiroshima consistantly has one of, if not the, lowest salary in Japan, it's done so to keep the team in the black. While Toyo (a car parts company) is listed as the owning corporation, it's my understanding that they don't really contribute much, if at all, to the upkeep of the team.

Unfortunately, though, all of the above is just what I've gathered from word of mouth. I have no evidence or particular person to site. So don't site this as though it were fact. It would make an interesting report should any student be looking for ideas. (Hint - see team contacts - hint.)

I'll leave "on field success" for later, when I find my books in one of the 30 odd boxes litering my living room.

As for fan popularity, that's a bit open for interpretation. What you probably want is this:

+------+-------+
| Team | Att   |
+------+-------+
| YG   | 54250 |
| FDH  | 44321 |
| HT   | 43571 |
| CD   | 31696 |
| YS   | 22440 |
| SL   | 21333 |
| YBS  | 21000 |
| NHF  | 18037 |
| OKB  | 16222 |
| OBW  | 15680 |
| CLM  | 13920 |
| HC   | 11909 |
+------+-------+

This is the average attendance for home games for each team. Naturally, the Giants are top, then you can see that Daiei averages an equally impressive number of fans for their home games, and the reborn Tigers are drawing fans like they haven't been able to for a decade.

But I'd like to propose another interpretation that numbers don't show. As you can see, Hiroshima is dead last in draw at home. Yet, if you've ever been to Hiroshima Shimin Kyujyo cheering for the visiting team, you'll find yourself very lonely. Even the Giants only draw a tiny sliver of fans in the left field stands in Hiroshima. While at pretty much every other stadium out there, the right side of the stadium (especially the outfield stands) is for the home team crowd, the left side for the visitors, Hiroshima is pretty much 95% home team fans, outfield included. Even Koshien is pretty much 50-50 against the Giants.