SUPPORTER
Supporter
17th Supporters Meeting
February 17, 2018 (Saturday) 17th Supporters Meeting
2018 Supporter Meeting
Hello everyone. Thank you for taking the time to come today. We will now begin the 17th Supporter Meeting. First, I would like to introduce the club's attendees. I will introduce them in the order they are seated. From the left, I am Yamauchi, CEO. I am Kajii, Director of the Academy, Strengthening Academy Department. I am Ninomiya, Director of the Promotion Department. I am Yamazaki, Director of the Customer Creation Department and Planning Department, Planning Division. I am Ito, Director of the Partner Sales Department and Sales Department, Partner Sales Division. I am Shikenmachi, Director of the Management Department, and I am Uenoyama, Director. I will start by giving an explanation from the club. First, I am Yamauchi, CEO. Thank you very much.
Hello everyone. I'm Yamauchi from GAMBA OSAKA. Thank you for taking the time to see me today despite your busy schedule. Also, thank you for your enthusiastic support. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude.
This will be our third season since moving to the new stadium. We regret that we have not been able to deliver a title to you all in the last two seasons. Today, we would like to announce our determination to fight in a way worthy of the GAMBA OSAKA name this season and deliver a title to you all, and we would like to give you a brief report on last season.
Last season, we entered the J1 League with a strong determination, but in the end we finished in 10th place, which was a disappointment to everyone. For that, I am very sorry.
At the beginning of the season, we made a very good start and finished in the top positions, but then we had a major slowdown in the second half of the season.
In particular, we deeply apologize for the poor performance following the announcement of the expiration of the contract of former Head Coach Hasegawa, and for disappointing everyone who supported us until the very end.
These are the results for tournaments other than the J1 League.
The ACL is a competition to determine the best in Asia, but we were unable to break through the barriers of South Korea and China and were eliminated in the group stage, making this a tournament that made us keenly aware of the large gap we still have between us and the rest of the world.
In the EMPEROR'S CUP, we advanced to the round of 16, but ended up losing to Kashiwa Reysol.
Finally, regarding the Levain Cup, we had our sights set on advancing to the final for the fourth consecutive year, but unfortunately we conceded the winning goal to Cerezo Osaka with 30 seconds left in the game, resulting in a disappointing and humiliating defeat, for which I am extremely sorry.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of you who came to watch both tournaments and gave us your thunderous support. This year, all of our players will do their best to live up to your expectations, so we ask for your continued support.
The U-23 team was launched two seasons ago with the aim of developing young players, but ended up in 16th place, a very disappointing result.
However, we believe that the experience of our young players in professional matches will be beneficial for GAMBA OSAKA in the future. Although the results are unsatisfactory, we would like to win this season. Head Coach Miyamoto will continue to coach the team in the 2018 season. We will fight as a team, aiming to achieve both development and results, so we ask for your continued support.
As I have said before, the 2017 season was a disappointing one, but I would like to share some bright spots with you all.
As you can see, many players fought with the Japanese flag on their backs. Five GAMBA OSAKA players played well against the world and Asia in the final qualifying round for the World Cup, six in the East Asian Championship, and four in the U-20 World Cup. In particular, all players except Konno and Miura are from the GAMBA OSAKA Academy, so I think this is a result of Gamba's focus on development.
We hope you look forward to seeing as many GAMBA OSAKA players as possible excel at this year's World Cup and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The goal is to revive a strong GAMBA OSAKA. We believe that our mission is to overcome the poor performance of the past two years and revive a strong GAMBA OSAKA. We would like to announce the concept and strengthening policy to achieve this mission.
Although there is a team concept, it remains the same even if the players and Head Coach change, and is "aggressively scoring goals." We will revive GAMBA OSAKA's offensive football, and aim to play football in which all players work together aggressively until the end, overwhelming the opponent and scoring goals.
Kajii will provide more details about our strengthening policy later, but we would like to move forward with these three points as our strengthening policy.
First, we will thoroughly strengthen GAMBA OSAKA's strong points. I believe that GAMBA OSAKA's strong points are speed and technique. In addition to individual strength, we would like to develop the ability to flexibly change tactics against opponents.
Next, GAMBA OSAKA has a reputation for being a "Gamba for development," and we want to make an even bigger push. We will have a consistent system from the top to the academy, and we want to give promising players the chance to advance through the grades one after another. To that end, we will be proactive in improving the training grounds, dormitories, and other facilities.
Finally, our goal is to become a team that can compete not only in Japan, but also in Asia and the world. We would like to instill in our players a winner's mentality that is always greedy for victory and puts victory first.
Therefore, our slogan for the 2018 season will be "Reclaim."
GAMBA OSAKA is a club that is always expected to win, and we believe that we must always fight to win titles. We will rebuild our attractive attacking football, which involves keeping the ball, taking control of the game, and aggressively heading towards the goal, and reclaim the title that we have lost for two years. We have adopted this slogan with the strong meaning of not only reclaiming the title, but also "bringing back a strong GAMBA OSAKA."
This season, we have appointed LEVIR CULPI from Brazil as our new Head Coach.
Head Coach Crupi is a renowned coach who has coached at prestigious clubs such as Santos FC and Cruzeiro EC in Brazil and has won numerous titles. In addition to his brilliant track record, he is also known for his aggressive football style and for developing young players, making him the perfect Head Coach for GAMBA OSAKA , which is aiming to recapture the title. Levy himself is also passionate about winning a title in Japan. I believe he will definitely live up to everyone's expectations. We look forward to working with him.
Next, I would like to introduce our new players.
In this photo, from the top left, Yuya FUKUDA Fukuda, Riku MATSUDA Shunya SUGANUMA , and Kosei TANI Tani. From the bottom left, we have Ren SHIBAMOTO , Shunya Suganuma, Tatsuya Yamaguchi, Shinya YAJIMA, and Haruto SHIRAI. Including these nine members, a total of 37 members will compete in the 2018 season. We look forward to your continued support.
As for the nickname of the stadium, starting this year, the nickname of the stadium will be "Panasonic Stadium Suita" as you can see. We would appreciate it if you would call it "Panasonic Stadium Suita".
We promise brilliant results for GAMBA OSAKA in the first year at Panasonic Stadium Suita, and we also hope to further deepen our collaboration with Panasonic's cutting-edge technology and strive to provide stadium entertainment that will further enhance the excitement of our fans.
These are our management goals for the 2018 season. The figures for 2018 are on the right.
We will continue to make efforts to encourage more people to come to the stadium, so we appreciate your support.
The specific numbers are as shown below.
By the way, we are expecting 20 games in the 2018 season. If we have 23 games, the same as last year, we would appreciate your understanding that the numbers will increase significantly. We understand that the most important thing is winning titles, so we will do our best to win all of them.
We are aiming to steadily increase the number of fans and season tickets. Thank you for your support.
Finally, we have drawn up a three-year mid-term plan, starting with the 2018 season.
I would like to explain the three pillars. First, we will develop the quality and ability of soccer that is the core of GAMBA OSAKA, and aim to become a big club that can compete on the world stage, known as "ever-winning Gamba," and we will demonstrate our overall strength. As for titles, we will work to win four titles in 2020 as a mid-term goal.
The second pillar is to always have a full stadium, and we believe it is our responsibility to keep this stadium, which was created with your donations, full. We are grateful to everyone for coming despite it being a difficult season for you, and we believe it is our responsibility to keep the stadium full, so we would like to make steady progress in this regard, one step at a time.
The average attendance in 2018 was 26,000, and in 2019 it is 27,000. We aim to increase attendance by 1,000 each year, and ultimately implement measures to have an average of 28,000 visitors attend the stadium in 2020. We appreciate your continued support.
Finally, the third pillar is that we at GAMBA OSAKA are the designated managers of Panasonic Stadium Suita. In other words, there are soccer matches on about 30 days out of a 360-day year, and our job is to get as many customers as possible to come here and make the remaining 330 days lively, and we believe that this is what gives Panasonic Stadium Suita its soul. This is also a major issue for this season, and we would like to steadily implement measures to achieve this.
In 2020, we aim to operate the stadium for 150 days out of 330 days, and to attract 150,000 visitors outside of matches.
I would like to touch on some of the finer details.
As for our efforts to become an ever-victorious Gamba, as I mentioned earlier, we will work hard on these three policies, aggressively scoring goals, and steadily achieve results.
In addition, I think one of GAMBA OSAKA's strengths is their ability to develop an academy.
We want to further strengthen our training, so we are currently building a training dormitory close to the stadium. We plan to start construction this April and have close to 50 students in the dormitory.
From here on, we would like to develop many top players for GAMBA OSAKA by cultivating rich humanity, socially relevant quality, developing creative players, and adhering to the spirit of fair play. By doing GAMBA OSAKA, we hope to steadily build a team that can lead a strong J.League for the long term and challenge the world, so we ask for your continued support.
Next, regarding our efforts to fill the stadium, the concept is a "filled stadium filled with smiles and excitement," so we would like to provide genuine hospitality, but as you can see, we would like to steadily plan and realize each and every thing, so we would appreciate your opinions.
As I mentioned earlier, our goal is to steadily achieve our goal of 26,000 visitors this year, 27,000 next season, and 28,000 in 2020. To achieve this, I think it is important for GAMBA OSAKA to be a strong team, so I will continue to make efforts in that regard.
Finally, regarding the Gamba Stadium park concept, as I mentioned earlier, in addition to the stadium, we would like to develop this area, including the training ground, development dormitory, and Osaka Football Association ground, into a ballpark. We would like to disseminate information on the promotion of physical and mental health, as a place of learning, and specifically, a place to interact with the local community. We would like to steadily move forward toward realizing the ballpark concept, where people gather here.
Specifically, we plan to have stadium tours, flea markets, concerts, weddings, health classes, public viewings, and joint attraction initiatives with Expocity. Although each individual event may not be large, we would like to carefully consider a ballpark concept that will steadily bring everyone together.
Thank you very much for listening.
We are very sorry that we have been struggling for the past two years since we moved to this stadium. Thank you so much for your enthusiastic support.
We are determined to do our best this season, and we hope to fight together as a team with you all. If you see us at the stadium, we would be happy if you could say hello to us. Thank you.
We appreciate your support this season.
Strengthening Department
Hello everyone. This is Kajii from the Strengthening Academy Department.
Starting this season, the training department and the academy department have been merged into one organization, and I will be in charge of that organization, so I would appreciate your cooperation. I would like to explain things in line with that.
Today I would like to explain two things: a summary of last season and our approach for this season.
Yamauchi already explained the results. I will repeat what he said a little, but in terms of the results of the professional teams, first of all, the top team had a total of 16 wins, 13 draws, and 19 losses, with three losses, which was the worst result in recent years and we are very sorry about that.
The U-23 team had 7 wins, 5 draws, and 20 losses. This was also a big losing record, and although the team was made up of young players, it is still a competitive world, so I think it is important for them to focus on winning.
This is a summary. There are many things I regret, and there are many more items to reflect on than I can list here. However, I have thoroughly analyzed the details here, and have listed a few items here.
First of all, you might ask "What is Gamba's style?" because of the style they have built up in the past, but I don't think they were able to change from that style or build on it last season.
We were not able to integrate team tactics and individual abilities well. Last season, we added several players to the team, but we started the season with the intention of incorporating them well in order to improve the team's strength. However, we regret that this did not work well throughout the season.
In particular, we had injuries to our promising strikers ADEMILSON Braga Bispo Junior, Fabio, and Jungo FUJIMOTO, and the long-term absence of these key players. Also, the transfer of Doan, who is due to leave midway through the season. These things caused the team to not function properly, and we were unable to fill the gaps together, which is something we regret very much.
In the season before last, the top team and the U-23 team operated as one team and competed in the J1 and J3 leagues, but last season we split them into two teams in order to focus more on developing younger players.However, cooperation did not go well, and we feel that this has strayed from our original goal.
In light of this, we would like to first firmly establish a team concept by taking another look at "What is Gamba's style?" Team composition is about securing the right players in the right position, with players who fit that style. There were a lot of injuries last season, and although the frequency and number of injuries was the same as in previous years, there were a lot of long-term injuries, so we need to work closely with medical, rehabilitation, and physical teams to manage conditioning.
We would like to communicate effectively and make sure to address any issues that arose as a result of splitting into two teams.
This is a summary of the academy team. Although there have been no victories in the junior youth and youth tournaments in this age group, national team players have been produced in each category, U-14, 15, 16, and 17. I hope to develop this young talent into one that can firmly enter a professional team.
As a challenge, I would like to create a solid and unwavering development guideline that will carry on Gamba's DNA.
Recently, the J.League has been accelerating its youth scouting. More and more clubs are developing players internally and promoting them to the top. I think the challenge is to find the gold ore in the rough, bring it into the club, develop it, and then suck it up to the top.
Of course, we will work to improve each individual's technique, tactics, and physical ability. We also need to instill in our players a strong competitive mentality.
With that in mind, as Yamauchi explained earlier, "We are working towards becoming an ever-winning Gamba," and our team concept is to be aggressive in scoring goals, with everyone going for the goal in an aggressive manner. Within that, we are building a team that utilizes Gamba's strengths and individual skills, which is our strengthening policy. And we are building a team that has an eye on Asia and the world. And, as I said earlier, we are building a team based on in-house production. We would like to work on these three pillars as our strengthening policy.
This is a strengthening and development plan. From the U-15 category to the top team, we will have one team under a consistent coaching system this season. Head Coach Levy also wants to "see players from the academy age group to the top team if possible," so we want to create an organization that gives opportunities to various players.
Of course, there is work that needs to be done in each category, but at Gamba we would like to take on the challenge of skipping grades and encouraging as many players as possible to move up to higher categories.
This season's professional team staff will consist of 17 members. Three new members will join us this season: Head Coach Levy, assistant head coach Mattel, and interpreter Shirasawa.
Head Coach Miyamoto will continue to be in charge of the U-23 Head Coach, as he did last season.
The top team will be accompanied by five players: Levy, Mater, Matsushiro, Chang Yeop and Yamaguchi, while Miyamoto and Kodama will be in charge of the U-23 team.
Next, the professional team will consist of 37 players. We will have one team. These 37 players will compete in J1 and J3 this season. During the season, we will do regular training with these 37 players.
However, depending on the content of the practice, we will divide the players into groups and separate the content of the practice, but all practice times will be the same, and on weekends we will split into J1 and J3 teams and play matches.
This is the structure of the academy staff. There will be 15 people. Starting this season, Matsunami-san will return as the Academy Director and will be in charge of managing the academy. Kamogawa-san will assist him as the Academy's Deputy Director.
The U-18 Head Coach and other coaching staff are exactly the same as last season. For the U-15 junior high school age group, we have had our goalkeeper coach, Coach Fujigaya, join us this season and he will be in charge of developing the younger players.
This is our approach for this season. We will organize a team that aims to win each competition. In particular, we want to challenge the J1 League with the desire to win at all costs. We will secure the best personnel to compete in the J1 and J3 leagues as a professional team of 37 players.
We have a team structure that is linked from the top team to the U-15 team. We have attractive players, and there are many young players who are growing very quickly and many players who have a bright future. In this context, we would like to build a professional team with a view to a generational change.
As mentioned earlier, the academy dormitory will open in April. We will provide a good training environment and hope to nurture players who will lead the way. Of course, we would like to build a team that can produce multiple players for each national team every year.
Next, we will strengthen our scouting system. From gold ores to players who can play right away, we will have a unified scouting system from the academy to the top team in order to expand our information network. We will support this season with three scouts. We would like to strengthen our scouting by visiting the field and carefully assessing the players.
Strengthening communication. Starting this season, all coaches, from the U- Head Coach to the top team coach Levy, will meet once a month to share information. We would like to do this including training for the coaches.
Finally, the team concept. As I mentioned earlier, we will pursue the kind of football that involves taking action to score goals aggressively, and we will develop players and build the team by sharing this concept from the lower categories to the top.
As for conditioning, we would like to support the players by ensuring that they are in good condition for the matches.
This concludes my brief explanation of my reflections on last season and my plans for this season. Thank you very much.
Promotion Department
Hello everyone. I'm Ninomiya from the Promotion Department. I look forward to working with you.
The table of contents is broadly divided into four sections, but today we will focus on the third one, our initiatives for fiscal 2018.
First, the overall picture of dissemination is based on three main pillars: schools at the top, clinics, and dispatch and other businesses.
From your perspective, the blue parts are new projects that will be carried out this year. For example, we currently have three schools in Toyonaka, Banpaku, and Hirakata, but this year we will open two more schools in Ibaraki and Moriguchi.
The clinics are tailored to specific positions, and since October last year we have been holding the Ibaraki Advanced Clinic at an indoor futsal court in Ibaraki City for elementary school students and adults.
In addition, as part of our dispatch business, we have dispatched coaches to Hirakata FC, a prestigious club team in Hirakata, deepening our exchange in soccer coaching.
In addition, instructors from the promotion department will participate in support classes at kindergartens and elementary schools in Suita City, as shown in the lower section, in an effort to further popularize soccer.
There are two main ways of thinking about our outreach activities: the enhancement and expansion of the upper level schools, and the creation of a base that supports the top team. Currently, we have five schools, including Kadoma and Sakai, and we would like to support the top team with a total of seven schools, including Ibaraki and Moriguchi, as mentioned earlier.
The lower section, building grassroots, means we want to expand the environment for enjoying soccer outside of school, as well as the professional environment.
If you combine the school students and clinic students on the top right side of the page, the total number of students is expected to be just over 1,500 in April 2018. Kadoma and Sakai are not included, but we will explain the details later.
Our goals are to enrich and expand the school, and to build grassroots support.
Secondly, as a summary of this year, we have schools, clinics, and short-term clinics, and the schools are in Toyonaka, Banpaku, and Hirakata. Toyonaka and Banpaku have artificial turf, but Hirakata is a city ground, so it has been canceled due to weather and ground conditions, and only Hirakata is struggling a little.
The clinics on the middle row and the year-round short-term clinics on the bottom row have generally been well received.
There are three main initiatives for this year. First, we will open two schools in our hometown, one at Ritsumeikan University's Ibaraki Campus, and the other at Oeda Park in Moriguchi City.
The second is to create an environment that increases customer satisfaction. Since October last year, we have been holding clinics on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays at the Noah Futsal Stage, an indoor futsal field in Ibaraki City.
The third is working together with the local community, and this year instructors from the outreach department will be visiting kindergarten and elementary school classes in Suita City.
This is a photo of the two schools this year, and the one on the left is Ritsumeikan University's Ibaraki Campus. This is the artificial turf of the warm-up area for the field hockey field. The games are scheduled to be held twice a week.
On the right is Oeda Park in Moriguchi. There, too, the event will be held once a week on an artificial turf field.
Regarding the kindergarten and elementary school support classes in Suita City that I mentioned earlier, we plan to make about 86 visits per year starting from April this year, targeting kindergarten to elementary school students.
On the right side is the international tournament called World Challenge U-12, which has been held in the Kanto region every year, but this year it will be held at the Expo in late August. Gamba Junior will also be participating unconditionally in this tournament, which has been attended by strong European teams such as FC Barcelona and Arsenal.
As part of our community-based activities, we participate in goalkeeper, adult, nursery school, and soccer classes every year, as well as support classes at kindergartens and elementary schools in Suita City, and we hope to become more involved in the local community.
This is the school's current base, and if we include Kadoma and Sakai, we now have a total of seven schools, and we hope to expand little by little in the future.
We mentioned Hirakata FC earlier, but we don't just have experience in football. We want to gradually increase the number of partner clubs that support the club of GAMBA OSAKA, attracting more spectators to the stadium and creating a system where they can support the top team players as part of the Gamba family.
Finally, this is our mid-term plan. Looking ahead to 2019 and 2020, we are planning to open nurseries for adults, girls, seniors, and an academy, as well as new schools.
This is the number of students at the school and clinic. In 2018, we were at the bottom, with 2,130 students, including Kadoma and Sakai. And in 2021, we would like to work hard to reach our goal of 3,000 students.
thank you for listening.
Customer Creation Department
Hello everyone. I am Yamazaki from GAMBA OSAKA. I hope you will join us. I would like to report on the activities of the Customer Creation Department this season.
The Customer Creation Department is a new division established in 2017, and I would like to briefly explain the role of this department.
The Customer Creation Department's main role is to develop new customers, improve customer satisfaction, and further strengthen relationships with customers, encouraging them to support GAMBA OSAKA and getting as many people as possible to come to the stadium.
We are in charge of four business areas: hometown, ticket sales, fan club, and merchandise. The third season will soon begin in the new stadium. As the stadium is new, we will be completely renovating the tickets and fan club, and the operation method will change significantly, so there are still some areas that you may not be satisfied with, but we will listen to our customers' opinions in a positive manner and use them to make improvements and reforms, so we appreciate your support.
Next, I would like to report on the revenue of our department. Here are the results from the 2016 season. The total revenue for the 2017 season was 1.89 billion yen, which is 90% of the previous year's figure. This season, which is just beginning, we are aiming for 1.98 billion yen. Admission fees in particular are a major pillar of the club's management.
This season, we are aiming to increase all income by carrying out various activities. In addition, by increasing our income, we hope to strengthen our team and improve our services to you, so we appreciate your understanding.
Next, as Yamauchi mentioned earlier, this is my second explanation regarding attendance. As you all know, last year the average attendance for the J1 League was 24,277 people, down about 1,000 people from the previous year. The total attendance for the 23 games was 494,000 people, down 36,000 people from the previous year. The number of seats for the year has also decreased slightly.
The average attendance in J3 was 1,226. We were unable to exceed the attendance in the 2016 season when the new stadium was launched. We will continue to identify the issues and work to resolve them.
However, we have 36,600 fan club members, which is 3,300 new members since last season. I think we have been able to expand our customer base. This number of fan club members puts us second in the J-League behind Kawasaki Frontale, with a difference of 300 members, but we hope to grow even more this season and maintain our number one position in terms of fan club membership.
Next, I will explain the activities for each project this season. First, for the hometown project, we will focus on attracting visitors, and we are aiming for 50,000 visitors from the hometown this season. In addition to daily activities, we will actively hold a Hometown Support Day.
The second point is that we will go out into the city and make "My Town, My Gamba" our basic activity, and increase the number of Gamba fans in the local area. We would also like to actively participate in events. Also, this year, we will work on new collaboration activities with Osaka Prefecture and the local governments of each hometown, visit schools, and promote the use of this stadium for children in the hometowns and for extracurricular activities at schools on days other than matches.
The third point is that "GAMBAssist" is an abbreviation for "assisting Gamba," and we are currently receiving a lot of support from hometown businesses. We hope that this support will lead to the healthy development of children and the revitalization of our hometown, so we will continue to promote this support and expand it.
The top level is for ticket sales. This is for selling tickets, and the main job is to control the tickets in this stadium that seats 40,000 people. In addition to that, we also work hard to create opportunities for people who want to support Gamba for the first time to come and watch the games.
GAMBA OSAKA is strengthening its digital marketing and has a lot of customer data. We will use this data to promote the local hometown and fan club members to visit as many games as possible this season.
We are also currently preparing to try again this season to give away uniform T-shirts to visitors to the Tower of the Sun at the Gamba Expo, which we first realized last year. We hope that this will also lead to more casual fans coming to the event.
Next is the annual seat. We are struggling with the annual seat. We want to increase the number of customers who will support the team even when they are struggling during weekday games. Starting this season, we have also started a discount service for annual seats at Expo City.
We are also working to expand our seasonal seating options for companies in Osaka Prefecture. We have received many complaints from customers about games they cannot attend or use, or want to watch games with their family in other seats, and therefore cannot use the seats if they hold them. Although it will not be possible to do so this season, we are currently working on introducing some sort of official GAMBA OSAKA resale system for the rights to attend games that cannot be attended.
However, this is not a system that Gamba can implement alone, so we will work hard with the cooperation of related companies so that we can provide this information to everyone.
Next, regarding the fan club, we are looking to expand our membership, with a goal of 38,000 members this season, and we want to make it an organization that encourages as many of those members as possible to come and support the team. With our hometown as the base, we will be carrying out activities to attract more members, along with hometown activities. In order to make the fan club more enjoyable, we will also be strengthening events at each hometown game. This season, we will also be starting new events, such as welcoming the players' bus, which will be exclusive to premium members.
Finally, there are the goods. We will promote the expansion of the sale of uniforms, as we want to dye Panasonic Stadium Suita blue with attractive Gamba goods. This season, by purchasing the uniform, you will be given the right to participate in events and you will also receive some goods.
Thank you for your many orders for uniforms. Thanks to you, we have received more orders than last season, and we are working hard to prepare for shipment so that we can deliver them by February 22nd, so customers who have ordered please wait a little longer. For those who have not yet ordered, they are currently on sale at the popular Blu SPAZIO next door, so please stop by again.
Next is our online shop. This site is also used by many customers, but we are planning to renew it in the fall. Currently, you have to register your credit card every time you shop, which is very inconvenient, but we will reopen the site with the aim of resolving this issue and creating a store that is easy to shop in and easy to navigate.
Finally, I would like to talk about our product PR. We recently opened an Instagram account for Gamba goods in order to let you know about our new products as soon as possible. We still have only 3,000 followers, so we need to work harder, but we would be very grateful if you would follow us and help us expand our reach.
This has been a quick explanation, but these are the activities of the Customer Creation Department this year. We look forward to your continued support this season.
Sales Department
I'm Ito from the sales department. I'll be explaining about partners, VIPs, public relations, and match management. Once I'm done with my part, I'll move on to the Q&A session. Please wait a little longer. Sorry.
There is a sponsor sales area and a VIP lounge. The fourth floor, between the third floor on the Lower levels level and the fifth floor on the Upper levels level, is the VIP area, and is where sales, PR and match management are carried out. The supporters' meeting that you are all attending today is also under my management.
Our partners are primarily involved in seeking sponsorship with the aim of pursuing customer satisfaction and creating a packed stadium to further energize the event.
We will maximize our financial investment by establishing profitability and continuing the business. There is the satisfaction of our partners and customers. In order for GAMBA OSAKA to take further steps, we are working on the theme of expanding profits.
We have reflected on last year and have summarized our partners' activities this year on two pages.
First, we have 85 partner companies. The biggest thing is the uniforms, with sponsors Panasonic on the chest, Daiken Corporation on the sleeves, ROHTO Pharmaceutical Pharmaceutical on the back, and Ship Healthcare on the back since last year. And Toyo Tire on the pants, which were previously on the uniforms.
Starting this year, the collarbone area has been added, and Panasonic has made changes to the J.League uniform regulations to allow the collarbone to be attached in two places above the collarbone, and Daicel has joined us this year. The Osaka-based company was originally a chemical manufacturer called Dai-Nippon Celluloid, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year.
Additionally, Descente's Umbro brand in Osaka is growing at an even faster pace, and approximately 35% of partner income is now concentrated here.
The third is a fixed signboard, and there are about 110 signs to put up in the middle and upper sections of the back stand. Various sponsors have various ideas, such as signs, activity activities, and further community activities. We are also in charge of the signs there. If we could add more this year, if you are a company or a friend, I would like to talk to you later and ask for your cooperation in further expansion. We are currently operating with the hope that we can earn about 40 million yen from about 10 companies.
We distributed the Tower of the Sun uniform to everyone as part of the "Gamba Expo" event, which was also held in Yamazaki. Although the result of the match itself was disappointing, we are working on a project that will make everyone very happy, by putting our logo on the back of the uniform as a sponsor.
Our partner business for the 2018 season has almost finished, so we are aiming to make a further leap forward into the 2019 season and increase our revenue through the mid-term plan we mentioned earlier of being an ever-victorious Gamba and attracting customers.
The sixth area, the VIP area, is where we have created an environment that our customers will be very happy with. We serve creative French cuisine and offer free drinks at the stadium. When we built this stadium, we thought about how to increase the value of the VIP area and how a chemical reaction between that and the lively supporters would increase the stadium's appeal. We want to increase the value of this place.
As for the seventh area of public relations, we feel that we need to use Gamba TV, Gamba EX and social media to better communicate the appeal of GAMBA OSAKA to everyone, so we would like to strengthen this area.
The eighth point is about the match management, and I've included the emails I received from you all. Regarding solving the issues of match management, we operate special buses after the match, with up to five buses running to the monorail's Banpaku-Kinen-Koen Station, Osaka Station, and Namba Station, but we would like to further improve convenience. In order to improve convenience, we are coordinating with local bus companies and our partner bus companies to increase the number of buses.
In addition, there are four gates that people wonder "why don't they open all of them" after the match. I am also keenly aware of the congestion. However, when all four gates were opened at the opening ceremony, there was little space in front of the gates, and the stairs leading to Banpaku-Kinen-Koen Station and Koen Higashiguchi Station were quite narrow, and many accidents occurred there. For this reason, we had no choice but to implement a regulated exit system, so we are currently only opening gates Gate 1 and Gate 3 after the match has finished. Therefore, we would like to work on easing the restrictions by creating a digest of the winning match to make everyone happy, and by having Panasonic do a projection mapping twice last year, which is something to enjoy after the match has finished, and by allowing people to leave at different times to eat and drink.
For example, on Wednesdays, people have work or school the next day and would like to go home early, but if we want to prioritize safety, I think the current method is probably better than best, but I believe we need to do our best to come up with some good measures.
There are 29 food and drink booths on the third floor. They started in 2016 because they are unique to Osaka, but they also started last year in front of the gate in a similar style to the previous Banpaku Oi G Yokocho. There is a time limit for re-entry, but we want to set up various restaurants to please the 25,000, 30,000, or 35,000 customers, and in the summer we need to take measures against heatstroke, so food and drink are also an issue for this stadium.
We have created a stadium with a very realistic feel, the team has improved, and the food is great. I think this will be a big attraction for everyone, so we will work with each store to find out what makes the food here more delicious than any other stadium.
This is a solution to the problem of the stadium, or rather of society, but passive smoking is also a major issue. Smoking is completely prohibited inside the stadium, but there are still some ashtrays in front of the gates. The biggest issue with passive smoking is that it has an influence on children, so I think it is also the responsibility of adults. There is no stadium that is completely smoke-free yet, but we are thinking about taking some kind of measures to achieve this.
There are many issues to be resolved while listening to your opinions on the comfortable stadium, but we are working to resolve them as much as possible. Regarding the supporter support project, at the away stadium Nagai Stadium during the Osaka Derby last year, someone waved a flag similar to the Nazi flag in a political statement, and the club received a second sanction from the J.League in the form of a fine.
So, the representative of our club and the supporters' association have been working to come up with a cheering guide to determine what kind of support we should provide as a base, and we hope to create a base that will make everyone happy and make them think, "As you'd expect, Gamba support is different!" and to create a positive form.
We have been receiving your opinions by email, but the representative feels that we need to keep the number of people to a certain extent so that we can come to an agreement, and we would like to stop Gamba from just deciding the rules and enforcing them.We would like to hear your opinions, and as this is the 17th supporters' meeting, we would like to hear your opinions and think about how we can resolve this issue.
Finally, as a club we had asked you to refrain from displaying flags, but due to feedback from you all we will be lifting the ban from the opening game. However, we will only be allowing flags that have been applied for in advance and which we have deemed appropriate to be displayed.
Discrimination must be eliminated in the sports industry. Also, we do not accept religious or political statements. We hope you will understand that. We hope to give more dreams to children, to focus on how great this city is, to inspire the players, and to become GAMBA OSAKA supporters who make the players feel "amazing!" when they see the cheering banners and flags. We hope you will understand that.
We have listed the plans for the 2016/17 season and this year. The major sponsors are almost in sight, and as for the broadcasting rights, DAZN has set the figure at 210 billion yen over 10 years, but for this year, 16 billion yen is the amount for one year. The amount to be distributed by SKY PerfecTV! is significantly larger than the base amount.
Also, the team that finishes from first to fourth place receives a very generous amount of money, so in order to win it, they need to be an undefeated team, and so we need to acquire the local broadcasting rights that are the basis for that, so we are doing business with NHK, ABC TV, MBS, and other local TV stations, etc. As I mentioned before, there is also the VIP portion, so my income is mainly in this form.
This is really the last time, but I would like to take this opportunity to meet you all, and although we have limited time, this is the year in which we will bet on the 2018 season of GAMBA OSAKA. With your support, we will make even greater strides, and I hope that we can create a strong team and hold a great event at the end of the season. Thank you for your continued support. Thank you very much.
Question-and-answer session
- Q
I've been a member of the fan club for 15 years, and last season was the most boring season. Especially in the second half of the season, the announcement in early September that Head Coach Hasegawa would not be signing a contract was made, and as an amateur, I think this had a big impact. I would like to know what the club thinks about this, why they had to make this announcement in early September when we could still aim for the title, and who made that decision.
-
A
This is Yamauchi. I am very sorry about the timing of Head Coach Hasegawa's contract expiration and the results since the announcement. I feel I need to apologize to everyone.
You have pointed out that there may have been a problem with making the decision so early, but as a club, we made the announcement in the hope that, while the players also had their opinions, making the decision clearly would encourage them to fight for the Head Coach with whom they had fought for five years to win the final two titles, and that teamwork would once again function.
Of course, I have consulted with the team staff and the Head Coach, and have made this announcement. However, as everyone has pointed out, we regret that the result was poor, and we will take this into consideration when making decisions regarding various issues going forward. That is all.
- Q
Thank you for giving me this opportunity. Last year, there was an unfortunate problem at the Osaka Derby, and now young people are working hard as call leaders, but I really liked the support that the previous call leader brought together in one stadium. I would like them to explain the reasons and circumstances behind why the previous call leader was permanently banned and the members of the group were restricted from entering the stadium, rather than just punishing the problematic supporters who waved their flags. Also, as was explained earlier, a supporters' meeting will be held, so if possible, I would like the members and contents of the supporters' meeting to be posted on the website.
-
A
As we are a J.League club, the J.League itself has established common Spectator Rules. Failure to follow the rules is a violation, and while the number of violations has decreased at GAMBA OSAKA in recent years, they have not actually disappeared.
Whenever a violation occurs, we summon the person in question each time to confirm what was done and tell them what kind of punishment will be given if they do so again.This is someone who has been repeatedly banned from entering the stadium, and we have made this decision based on the J.League's standards.
I'm sure you all have opinions about how good the support is, but as a club, we came to this decision after discussing with him. We also hope that the call leader in the future will be able to provide a unified and realistic stadium experience for everyone.
As for the meetings, they are held in private and are posted on the website as reports of conversations with members. Members from the club, including executives and sales staff, have held 11 meetings with multiple supporter representatives, and these are posted as reports, so we hope you will understand.
- Q
I would like to ask about overseas transfers. You mentioned in your previous explanation that you are focusing on the academy to develop world-class players, and I personally feel that there are a lot of good young players these days. On the other hand, this year Ideguchi and last year Doan went overseas just when they were finally becoming mainstays, and when the main players are taken out, Gamba's strength as a top club is reduced. You said that you aim to become a big club that can be used on the world stage, but in a situation where Gamba's current top team is losing strength by developing world-class players, I would like to know how you plan to develop players and use them as a top team to improve your performance, and how you plan to develop the team in the future.
-
A
I will explain about overseas transfers. This issue is a big blow not only to Gamba but also to many J.League Clubs due to the outflow of young players overseas. For this reason, each club is making various efforts. For example, the contract period with the player, the salary, the conditions for transferring overseas, etc. are clearly stated in the contract, and such contracts are made in order to secure or retain the main and core players. Ideguchi and Doan were both contracted in exactly the same way because the club wanted to keep them. However, given the current level of the J-League, especially from Europe, the contract conditions are low, making it easy to acquire young players. This is a big issue that needs to be changed, but players are leaving under such circumstances.
In the end, we have no choice but to let them go if they meet the conditions, but we have tried to persuade them to stay. In the case of Doan, it has been two years. In the case of Ideguchi, it has been two years. So, if the conditions are met, we will support them in the end, taking into account their wishes.
However, as for Gamba, as far as in-house production is concerned, we will continue to develop players from the bottom up, as we have done in the past, and if the players who have been developed go abroad, we would like to support them if they meet the conditions. Also, there have been various reports about how much the transfer fees were, but it is not the amount that is being reported. We set a high hurdle, so the club's thinking is to strengthen our forces within those conditions.
- Q
Last year, the team was in a slump, and I was curious about how the front office organized the team, but this year they acquired Yajima and Suganuma, but as the core of the club, I think the slump last year was mainly due to the quality of the FW, and also, with Ideguchi leaving the midfield, it seems like there are very few ball-winning defensive midfielders, so what is the club's opinion on that? Also, in January, the foreign player quota was reduced, so I would like to know if that was at the request of Head Coach Crupi.
-
A
Regarding team composition, I think there were three points from last season to this season: strengthening the FW, strengthening the defensive midfielders, and strengthening the foreign players. These three points were decided at an early stage before the Head Coach for this season was decided, and we started to organize the team for this season from that point. Among them, ADEMILSON Braga Bispo Junior, who we had high hopes for last season, was injured and left the team after September. This was a big deal, but we still have high expectations for him. He is currently undergoing rehabilitation, and is making good adjustments towards the start of the season, and is in a state where he will be able to return towards the beginning of this season. Regarding strengthening the FW, we basically have ADEMILSON Braga Bispo Junior, who was injured last season, and HWANG Ui Jo, who was in the middle of last season, and who we finally got after requesting him for two years. Plus Nagasawa, we are thinking of these three as the pillars for this season.
As for the defensive midfielder position, we lost Ideguchi, who was good at stealing the ball, but we have acquired Yajima, who is a different type of player. If possible, we would like to use a new player who is close to the old Gamba style, who can hold the ball firmly and play the game offensively, and fight this season with a new style. We made an offer to Yajima for two years and finally acquired him this season, as he can hold the ball firmly and not let the ball be stolen, and can also rush forward.
As for foreign players, as I mentioned at the beginning, I have been talking with Head Coach Levy since last season. He requested that we first assess Gamba's existing players, and that is how we have come this far. We have been discussing this thoroughly through the first and second training camps. We are still doing so. We are carefully considering whether to acquire foreign players before the first window closes or in the summer, and we will let you know as soon as it is decided.
- Q
I understand the mid-term plan up to 2020, but to be honest it's a little hard to understand as to what specific titles or results you are aiming for this year, so I would like to know about that. Also, I think 2017 was a stressful season in many ways, and after thinking about the various factors, I think it was due to a mistake in the front office's organization.
I would like you to clearly state the specific goals for 2018, and also clearly explain where the responsibility lies for the front office if they are not achieved. Thank you in advance. -
A
This is Yamauchi. I'm very sorry about last season. We will win four titles in the 2020 season, but as for the 2018 season, we have set the theme of recapturing them, so we will basically aim for all titles, but especially the J1 title. LEVIR CULPI also has a strong desire to win a title in Japan, so the team is very aggressive in its gameplay and the Head Coach's tactics are working well, so I'm looking forward to it. I am keenly aware of the responsibility of the front office. I would like to ask for your understanding that I will respond appropriately within the club. Thank you.
Now we will conclude the 17th Supporters Meeting.
thank you very much.
that's all