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When I posted my recent NPB visit report I briefly mentioned Hokkaido’s ESCON FIELD. But after thinking more about it, I realized this place deserved more than a short note, so I’m going to unpack a few things I couldn’t fit into the previous post.
ESCON FIELD — The World’s First Retractable Roof and Natural Grass Stadium
ESCON FIELD opened in 2023 as the Nippon-Ham Fighters’ new home and is the world’s first baseball stadium with both a retractable roof and natural grass. The outfield glass façade is listed in the Guinness World Records as the largest stadium glass façade in the world, and standing in front of it in person is far more overwhelming than photos convey. But what really surprised me wasn’t the stadium building itself—it was the space surrounding it called F Village.
F Village — A Town Where You Can Spend a Day Without Baseball
Outside the ballpark there are ponds and walking paths, hot springs and a sauna, a dog playground, glamping-style accommodations, and even Kubota’s agricultural experience center—connected like a small town. In my previous post I summed it up as a large park with a ballpark, but in reality it’s a place where you could spend an entire day even without watching a game.
The scale of the place is even more striking in numbers. According to a Nippon-Ham representative, annual attendance for home games is around 2.2 million, while total visitors to F Village exceed 4.3 million—almost double. For a small city like Kitahiroshima, with a population of about 60,000, attracting that many people is hard to believe from a marketer’s perspective.
A Goods Store Packed Even on Weekdays
The retail scenes were impressive too. Even though I visited on a weekday, the official team goods store was packed. Areas were divided by player, and long lines for trading cards and limited-edition items stretched deep into the shop—seeing that level of spending on a weekday was astonishing.
Premium Seating That Feels Like a Lounge
The seating was worth noting as well. There were various premium sections with leather seats, reclining functions, and cup holders, and sitting in them felt more like being in a lounge than a ballpark. As someone in the same industry, I always feel a bit envious when I see facilities like this, and this time was no exception.
Closing Thoughts — A Space People Visit Even Without a Game
Of course, you can’t transplant all of this directly back home. F Village is the result of the club’s parent company approaching the project as urban development rather than just a stadium, and the scale of investment and land availability are different from what domestic clubs typically start with. Still, the idea of designing a ballpark as a content space that draws visitors on weekdays—not just on game days—is one domestic clubs should keep studying.
If I get another chance to go back to Hokkaido, this time I think I’ll spend a whole day in F Village—baseball aside.
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