BMP:business management point In the J.League Management Cup 2018, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the business management (BM) of each J.League club from four perspectives —Marketing, Efficiency, Management, and Finance— mainly based on financial information and related data for each club published by the J.League. J1 Ranking, J2 Ranking, J3 Ranking J.League Management Cup 2018 Management Cup Analysis of the J.League 1st Stage, 2nd Stage, 3rd Stage, 4th Stage KPI:key performance indicators Average Attendance Stadium Capacity Utilization Ratio Ratio of New Spectators to Total Attendance Average Revenue per Spectator Wage Bill per Point Won Matchday Revenue per Point Won Wage Bill to Revenue (%) Social Media Followers Social Media Follower Fluctuation Profits from Merchandise Sales Total Revenue Year-on-year Revenue Growth Rate Equity Ratio J.League Management Cup 2018 Sports Business Group September 2019 J.League Management Cup 2018 Foreword | Foreword Contents Foreword 03 In the 2018 season, the J.League celebrated the momentous Databook occasion of the 25th anniversary since its founding. Introduction On the competitive side, world-class player Iniesta's participation Growing Expectations for the Evolution of Sports in Japan 04 in the J.League attracted considerable attention, and J.League clubs won two consecutive titles in the AFC Champions League, making it Overview a newsworthy season befitting of this milestone. On the business BMP:business management point In the J.League Management Cup 2018, we conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the business management (BM) of each J.League club Four Perspectives of the J.League Management Cup 2018 from four perspectives side, the number of registered J.League IDs promoted by the League, 06 —Marketing, Efficiency, Management, and Finance— mainly based on financial information and related data for each club published by the J.League. J1 Ranking, J2 Ranking, J3 Ranking which provide all-in-one access to League services, exceeded one Comparative Analysis of J1, J2, and J3 Divisions J.League Management Cup 2018 Databook million. A door to a new age of digital marketing has opened, and Management Cup Analysis of the J.League 1st Stage, 2nd Stage, 3rd Stage, 4th Stage KPI:key performance indicators Average Attendance 1st Stage: Marketing 08 Stadium Capacity Utilization Ratio J.League has confidently declared that it will raise its social value Ratio of New Spectators to Total Attendance Average Revenue per Spectator Wage Bill per Point Won Matchday Revenue per Point Won Wage Bill to Revenue (%) Social Media Followers Social Media Follower Fluctuation Profits from Merchandise Sales 2nd Stage: Efficiency Total Revenue moving forward through the concept of "social collaboration." 09 Year-on-year Revenue Growth Rate Equity Ratio 3rd Stage: Management 10 Regarding League management, the supply of prize money started in the 2018 season, and the League clarified its goal of breaking free 4th Stage: Finance 11 Jリーグ マネジメントカップ 2018 デ ータブック of the convoy system (sheltering weaker clubs). Friday Night J.League スポーツビジネスグループ 2019.9 J1 Ranking 12 CEO has also started, a promotion to acquire new customers who don’t have time to watch J.League over the weekend. It’s evident that the J1 Analysis The J.League Management Cup 2018 Databook, which Deloitte Tohmatsu Financial Advisory LLC League is undergoing a great business shift. 1st Stage: Marketing 14 contains the main data used for this report, has been Kazuhiro Fukushima To help the league connect its many years of experience to 2nd Stage: Efficiency 16 made available free of charge by Deloitte Tohmatsu’s sustainable growth moving forward, Deloitte Tohmatsu Sports Sports Business Group at the following website: 3rd Stage: Management 18 Business Group has ranked the business management (BM) of 4th Stage: Finance 20 URL : www.deloitte.com/jp/sportsbusiness every club in the League in the fifth edition of this report, J.League Management Cup 2018. J1 Cup Winner's Analysis The J.League Management Cup is compiled from objective Kawasaki Frontale 22 observations on the results of specific initiatives carried out by the Special Feature 1 J.League and its clubs. Of course, the J.League is also discussed by people connected to other sports businesses. To this end, we hope it The Impact of Friday Night J.League 24 will provide a foundation for discussion related to the upcoming 2020 J2 Ranking 26 Tokyo Olympic & Paralympic Games, and continued discussion on the J2 Analysis general state of sports business after they conclude. As one of the largest groups of business advisors in Japan, the 1st Stage: Marketing 28 Deloitte Tohmatsu Group set up its Sports Business Group in April 2nd Stage: Efficiency 30 2015. Since then, we have been working as a team to help expand 3rd Stage: Management 32 markets for sports businesses in Japan and the rest of Asia, following 4th Stage: Finance 34 Publisher: the lead of the Sports Business Group in the United Kingdom. At Deloitte Tohmatsu Financial Advisory LLC the global level, Deloitte UK, our member company, has run its own J2 Cup Winner's Analysis Sports Business Group (SBG) Sports Business Group for more than 25 years, contributing to the Matsumoto Yamaga FC 36 Address: Marunouchi Nijubashi Building, development of the sports business market centered on the English 3-2-3, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-8363 Premier League. Special Feature 2 TEL: 03-6213-1180 Through our activities, we are offering new insights into the sports E-mail: [email protected] Analysis of the Distance between the Hometowns of business market, and I am confident they will help us bring more URL: www.deloitte.com/jp/sportsbusiness Competing Clubs 38 dynamism to the business of sports moving forward. J3 Ranking 40 Supervising editor: Kazuhiro Fukushima J3 Analysis Supervising writer: Shin Satozaki 1st Stage: Marketing 42 2nd Stage: Efficiency 44 Contributing writers: Takato Kinoshita, Kazumasa Kawabata, 3rd Stage: Management 46 Akinori Kaneta, Tetsuya Kotani, Kazuhiko Ota, 4th Stage: Finance 48 Komei Sugiyama, Daiki Torii, Hiroki Miyake, Masakuni Kanetaka, Koji Tsuchikura J3 Cup Winner's Analysis Giravanz Kitakyushu 50 Creative collaboration: Takeshi Kihara, Megumi Hiraga Special Feature 3 Social Collaboration Platform Potential 52 Editorial Postscript 54 Greeting 55 © J.LEAGUE 02 03 Introduction Growing Expectations for the Evolution of Sports in Japan Increased Investment in the J.League potentially have strong synergies with companies, there In the 2018 season, the J.League was thrilled to may be a good chance that more businesses will want welcome new star players. In addition to Kobe acquiring to take part in club management. However, there are the world-class superstars Andrés Iniesta and David now 54 J.League clubs in the J1 to J3 range (as of 2018) Villa from Spain, Tosu acquired Fernando Torres, also and a significant number of clubs are struggling in field from Spain, and Nagoya acquired Jô from Brazil. In the management (FM) and have limited exposure, in rural early '90s, J.League was a gathering place for the world's locations with small markets or management that is superstars. Now, after making it through the slump that quite weak. It may be hard for these clubs to become accompanied the decline of the '90s J. League boom attractive business for companies to invest in. and a sluggish economy, it is again time to welcome the Moving forward, it is essential for clubs with difficulty arrival of star players. acquiring investment to establish a strategy for survival, Needless to say, for J.League clubs to acquire considering that the gaps between clubs will likely star players—now that it has adopted a club license widen. Further, they must decide whether they will system—they must have sufficient assets to cover large compete in the same arena as powerhouse clubs in big transfer fees and annual salaries. This can be seen as a cities, or whether they will discover another means of reflection of increased sponsor and owner investment fighting for survival. in the League and its clubs. In fact, due to funds the J.League has received Pushing League Value Even Higher from its broadcasting deal with DAZN, the average In 2018, the World Cup was held—the largest global funds distributed from the League to each club in football event. J1 has doubled from 225 million yen in 2016 (before The way the Japanese national team stood head- collaborating with DAZN) to 474 million yen in 2017 to-head with some of the world's strongest countries after the collaboration. This number further rose fascinated many and likely created a number of new to 487 million yen in 2018. Additionally, in 2018, the football fans. Even so, the J. League average attendance companies RIZAP, CyberAgent and Akatsuki invested in in 2018 for both J1 and J2 saw only a marginal increase Shonan, FC Machida, and Tokyo-V, respectively. At the (less than 1% from the previous year) and attendance time of writing this report in 2019, Mercari has acquired in J3 even decreased. (The tendency for the World Kashima. These are vivid signs that club management Cup to have minimal effect on J.League attendance is revitalization is steadily progressing. consistently seen in the several past events.) The value of the J.League in the entertainment The average age of J.League spectators was 41.9 years industry has started to be substantially acknowledged, old, showing an increase of 0.2 years compared with the alongside the value of individual clubs as centerpieces previous year. Recently, the rise in average spectator in their hometowns. age has slowed due to efforts to appeal to young people, including DAZN broadcasts and the use of From Coexistence to Competition social media. Yet considering that the average spectator It's a fact that the gaps between clubs are widening.