Connecting regional culture to ballpark design in Asia

This article is the second in a three-part series looking at how Asia’s baseball stadiums are inspiring a new generation of players and fans.  In Part 1, Associate Principal Seungho Lim discussed how stadium design is keeping up with fan expectations, and how inspiration is often sought from the U.S. market, which has seen major ballpark upgrades during the past 20 years.  But as Lim noted, while there are similarities between the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB) and professional leagues in Asia such as Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (Nippon Yakyū Kikō) league in my home country, you can’t just take the north American model and apply it literally to venues in our region. 

In Japan, the origins of baseball lie in high school and amateur competitions.  Venues like Hanshin Koshien Stadium, which is more than 100 years old, have set the tone for the spirit of the game locally for a century.  It’s an honour for Japanese players to play there and for them, it’s more than just a game.  Venues like Hanshin Koshien Stadium influence how people come together and form friendships. 

For many fans in Asia, baseball is more than a sport – it is a cultural phenomenon with social differences across different countries.  When we are designing ballparks, we must recognise these differences to be able to design with purpose for the next generation of ballparks in Asia. 

For me, having attended baseball games since I was a child, the baseball stadium is a safe and welcoming space.  It’s somewhere I can go by myself but also feel connected to thousands of others.  For me, for players and for fans, stadiums like Meiji Jingu are sanctuaries.  Meiji Jingu Stadium in Shinjuku, Tokyo opened in 1926, and growing up, if you were interested in sport this was the neighbourhood to be in.  As a university student, I did part-time jobs selling tickets and assisting guest services at that Stadium.  It was a learning experience for me to work there and understand the power of design and how this impacts your sense of place even if you are not a diehard fan.  Even on non-gamedays, I’d see people going to the area just for a calm moment.  The moments made in places like Meiji Jingu live on forever.  This season alone, I’ve been to 30 games at Meiji Jingu Stadium and even more games at Tokyo Dome.  

So, it’s not surprising that there are distinct cultural differences in fan activity and game behaviour between Japan and other “baseball mad” countries such as Taiwan and South Korea and even more so between Asian countries and north America.  Our designs therefore take into consideration the ways fans interact with the game to ensure that the stadium provides the best experience that will facilitate the enjoyment I have felt at these venues since I was a child. 

In South Korea, for example, where we are working with the Seoul Metropolitan Government on Asia’s first baseball dome that will be home to two professional teams, Jamsil Dome, we looked at the essence of the north American model, including viewing experience and access to the venue but blended this with local baseball culture to create something unique with larger home supporting stands and more isles that are much closer together to facilitate the way people move and behave at a local game. 

In Asia, home fan cheering sections are typically located in the outfield, which drives the need for increased capacity in this area of the stadium and is something you would not necessarily see in a U.S. ballpark.

Increasing the number of isles allows for movement of people in these busy sections of the stadium, particularly in Japan where people do not like to be seen as rude by asking someone to move during a game – myself included when I want to get my mid-game refreshments or if I’m finding my seat after the game has started. 

The biggest difference I have seen in the way fans experience baseball across different parts of the world is in the collective response to the game.  In north America it is more about the individual experience or smaller groups whereas in Asia it’s about the community response to the on-field action – sunsets and fireworks, even in the rain, is something that brings a different energy in Asia.  

In Japan, fans will participate in organised chants and cheers, fostering a sense of unity and shared purpose.  This includes the seventh inning tradition of letting off colourful rocket balloons into the stadium and the highly coordinated umbrella dance that unifies the people in the crowd through the celebratory opening and closing of their umbrellas. 

When we design arenas, we look at how the ballpark itself can bring people together and facilitate this sense of team unity.  For example, in Japan we are working on various stadia and arenas that have dedicated home fan stands.   

There’s always an essence that you can relate to at Japanese ballgames.  Even the behind the scenes of the game is something that draws me back because every moment is different and you want to be part of that experience.  Through our ballpark designs, we are identifying these off-field touchpoints and using them to elevate key moments.  Being a fan of the ballgame, I’m excited to see so much potential in the development of new venues in Japan and how we can use the design of these to bring more to these moments.  It needs to be done in a culturally authentic way that makes these iconic places destinations for everyone.  

Senior Principal Brett Wightman, who has designed sports and entertainment venues across the world, believes that sports infrastructure can be designed to facilitate and encourage community interaction during a game. 

To accommodate and encourage this collective fan response to the game, large single tier stands help fellow supporters perform their team chants and actions in unison.  

You can see this applied at both Changwon City baseball park, home of the NC Dinos in South Korea, and Taipei Dome in Taiwan where both arenas have large and deep ground level stands when compared to a U.S venue such as Yankee Stadium where the fans go up rather than out into the field. 

Ballpark design is also influenced by entertainment culture.  In Japan the engagement with baseball and many other sports extends from the stadium to billboards and on television, with popular players seen as heroes.  Within this culture of hero worship the lines between gameday entertainment and non-gameday entertainment, such as concerts, become blurred.  In the U.S. it is uncommon to see mid-game dancing and singing such as from cheerleaders, but in Asia it is all part of the show, particularly in South Korea where K-pop culture is part of sporting culture.   

In South Korea we integrate stages and performance areas into the edge of the seating bowl so that K-pop singers and dancers can perform for fans during the game to heighten the live experience.  When we are designing seating bowls, we are not just thinking about how to get physically closer to the game but also emotionally closer through that entertainment experience.  This creates added value for fans in those sections of the arena. 

When you take a sport that is inherent to north America and fuse it with the Asian market you create something that is truly unique.  The essence of the game might be the same as in the West, but the way the cities and the fans consume and engage with the traditions of the game changes significantly from country to country. 

Baseball in Japan, for example, has been popular for more than a century and we want to create new opportunities for the next generation to experience places like Meiji Jingu Stadium and create their own local memories.  This is something we are designing for. 

Our teams purposely collaborate across international borders ensuring that we bring both the technical capabilities and the cultural understanding to the design of ballparks in Asia; providing purposefully designed spaces for fans to gather and celebrate their teams over coming decades.