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Osaka Nagai B Stadium

aka "Kincho Stadium", "Sakura Stadium"
Nagai Park, Sumiyoshi-ku Osaka

Nagai Koen, in Southern Osaka, is the site of not one, but two very well-appointed stadiums that have served as the home base of Cerezo Osaka since the club was still called Yanmar Motor Osaka. The centrepiece of the park, Nagai "A" Stadium (aka "Yanmar Stadium") is a 47,000-seat multipurpose facility with a large running track, and thus is not ideal for football except when a very large crowd is expected to attend. 

Nagai "B" Stadium is much smaller, and is designed for football and rugby only. The only "problem" with Nagai B is that it originally accommodated only about 12,000 fans in the "designated seating"areas (there were overflow areas in both end zones, so actual capacity was closer to 15,000).

In the early 2000s, however, the smaller facility was given a thorough refurbishing, including the construction of terraces in both end zones, raising capacity to 20,000. This allowed Cerezo to play a larger percentage of its matches at the cozier, more energetic stadium.  Unfortunately, the stadium operators signed a corporate licensing deal that subjected the team to a rather unfortunate "jinx".

 

The company that manufactures Japan's top brand of mosquito coils - Kincho - became a major Cerezo sponsor just as the team was recouping the financial benefits of selling players like Shinji Kagawa, Hiroshi Kiyotake and  to European clubs. Using the stronger cash flow, Cerezo hired several big-name foreigners and let it be known that they were aiming for silverware, just as the club moved into its new digs.

Unfortunately, the word "kincho" also means "nervous", in Japanese. True to the omen, Cerezo seemed unable to perform well at Nagai B, and despite the presence of players like Diego Forlan and Takumi Minamino, Cerezo slipped into relegation. 

After their return to J1, Cerezo seemed to overcome the "Kincho jinx", but with the smaller capacity, the stadium was not able to accomodate important matches.  As the 20-teens drew to a close, the club began collecting donations to expand Kincho Stadium's seating to around 25,000. Ony half of the money has been raised, as of December 2020, but the city hopes to open the renewed facility (possibly under a new nickname - some have suggested "Sakura Stadium") in 2022 or thereabouts.

Osaka "Kincho" Stadium

Location: Nagai Park, Sumiyoshi-ku, Osaka   Capacity: 25,000?
Home Team(s): Cerezo Osaka   Completed: 1980

Stadium Access

Nagai stadium is easily accessible by either above-ground or subway trains. It is located midway between Tsurygaoka and Nagai stations on the JR Hanwa line, and near Nagai station on the Osaka city subway sustem's Gojosuji subway line. The stadium is just a five minute walk (or less) from all three of these stations.
Click to enlarge

Pictures of Nagai B ("Kincho") Stadium