Speaking of Vegalta Sendai, they were a team in the J1 category throughout the 2010s. It was a team with many plain players and no glamor at all, but it was a team that showed a stable performance, so why did it fall to the wayside? There are quite a lot of factors contributing to this.
What kind of club is Vegalta Sendai?
Vegalta Sendai is a soccer team based in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture. Its predecessor was the Tohoku Electric Power Soccer Club in 1988, and it was promoted to the JFL in 1995. From 1999, the team name became Vegalta Sendai and they started participating in the J2 League. After that, they were promoted to the J1 League and became a team that attracted attention. However, after that, Vegalta was unable to stay in the team and continued to lose, and the situation did not improve and they were quickly relegated.
Why is the team color gold?
Vegalta Sendai’s team color is gold. This is due to the fact that Miyagi Prefecture was the first gold producing area in Japan. Home games are played in gold uniforms.
home stadium
The home stadium is Yurtech Stadium, a soccer stadium that can accommodate 19,000 people. This stadium has a roof, so unless it’s raining sideways, you won’t get much wet except for the front row seats. It is a ball game-only stadium with no track and field track, and can also accommodate rugby matches.
The reason why Vegalta Sendai is so weak
Speaking of Vegalta Sendai, they weren’t a team that stood out that much even in J1. We don’t have any players that stand out compared to other strong clubs, and we don’t have any championship experience. It’s not like he was extremely strong in J2 either. However, in the 2020s, this team is undergoing a major shake-up. What the heck is going on?
management crisis
Vegalta Sendai was in a financial crisis. An advance announcement of club management information disclosure was made in 2023, and it was announced that the club had been in excess of debt in its financial statements until the previous year, but that the excess debt had been resolved. There is a rule that if a J League club team continues to operate in the red, their license will be revoked. If you are in the red for three consecutive years, your license will be revoked. In the past few years, Sendai has been in a state of chaos as there is a severe punishment in the event of excessive debts, including the immediate revocation of licenses. In a sense, it could be said that he no longer had the strength left to compete in J1.
Difficult to attract players
Vegalta Sendai is ranked around 18th in terms of sales, so they have the lowest level of financial power in J1 and the highest level of financial strength in J2. As explained above, Sendai has struggled to attract promising players in recent years due to the debt problem. Furthermore, in 2021, the year in which they were relegated, the main players had a long injury period, and they were unable to have the best members, so their relegation was decided quickly. Vegalta Sendai, who was demoted to J2, is still struggling. Vegalta hasn’t been talked about much since 2020, and they haven’t been able to recruit Japanese national team players. We have failed to win the representative class.
Sponsor withdrawal?
There were even rumors that the sponsors of Vegalta Sendai were withdrawing. To add to the poor results of recent years, the team is also becoming corrupt. It was discovered that Vegalta Sendai’s sales staff had embezzled approximately 11.66 million yen, including sponsorship fees, from customers, creating a corrupt image. This employee was fired, but the team’s credibility suffered greatly.
Is Vegalta Sendai unpopular?
This may be even more negative news, but Vegalta Sendai cannot be called a very popular team. The reasons for this are as follows.
It was a sports wasteland.
Sendai is one of the largest cities with a population of 1 million people. However, although Sendai is a large city, sports were not very popular. Sendai City didn’t have many racetracks or velodromes, and the citizens didn’t have much interest in sports. It was a city where the only entertainment was pachinko and game centers.
rakuten eagles
Vegalta Sendai was born in a land barren of sports. The citizens had high expectations for Vegalta Sendai, but then the professional baseball team Rakuten Eagles appeared. The Eagles became a symbol of recovery from the earthquake, rising in the standings and winning the season’s league championship. This caused great excitement in Sendai, and people started to pay more attention to baseball than soccer. In soccer, we have lost in official games and been relegated, but we have never won the J1 championship, so it is not very exciting.
Eagles are all around Sendai Station
The area around Sendai Station is full of Rakuten advertisements. You could say it’s mostly dominated by baseball. If you go to Izumi Chuo Street in the north, you will see advertisements for Vegalta Sendai, but if you look at it as a whole, you can say that Sendai has been ruled by Rakuten Eagles. Due to this, the popularity of Vegalta Sendai has become a bit strange.
J League can be watched online and on TV
The J.League is a very exciting league, and you never know who will win at any time. You can watch the J League live using the services introduced below. If you are interested, please go to the stadium or watch the game on TV.
| Channel | Plan | Soccer Contents | URL |
| DAZN | \3750 | national team major europe leagues J league | DAZN |
| Hulu | ¥1026 | french league dutch league | Hulu |
| WOWOW | \2530 | UEFA Champions League UEFA Europa League | WOWOW |
| ABEMA TV | ¥960 | national team World Cup Premier League scottish league | ABEMA |
| スカパー | ¥429 + ¥2480 | national team emperor’s cup soccer Bundesliga laliga | スカパー！ |
| J SPORTS | \1100 | fifa world youth | J SPORTS |
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