March 23, 2011.
Japan, Osaka Prefecture, Hyogo, Hanshin Koshien Stadium.
Today marks the opening of the 83rd Senbatsu High School Baseball Tournament, the 2011 Spring Koshien event, but at this moment, the stands inside the Koshien Stadium appear somewhat empty: the large venue, capable of accommodating fifty thousand people on Hanshin Tigers' game days, hasn't even reached an attendance of twenty thousand today.
The vacant seats and the scattered spectators on the stands are like unsightly scars that are somewhat shocking to behold.
Based on past experiences, although the Spring Koshien lacks the "last summer" aesthetic of regret and thus is less attractive than the Summer Koshien, it is nevertheless a major event that mobilizes on-site attendance of over 500,000 and boosts the surrounding economy by over 30 billion yen— yet the current spectacle at the stadium seems mismatched.
