The Mito Mayor, Yasushi Takahashi, has revealed during his regular media briefing that the City of Mito, the prefectural capital of Ibaraki, has decided to expand the side stands of the K’s denki Stadium Mito, home of the J-League Division 2 (J2) side FC Mito HollyHock, according to the Ibaraki Newspaper Cross Eye.
The current capacity of the K’s denki Stadium Mito, with its main and back stands, is just over 10,000 which falls short of the J-League’s stadium capacity requirement of a minimum 15,000 capacity for promotion to the top flight, J-League Division 1 (J1).
The City has been planning to expand the back stand of the stadium to meet the requirement but the municipality has since faced considerable difficulty in acquiring the adjacent land for their development project and it seems to have shifted in a different direction, and is now looking at expanding and building roofs at the South and North side stands instead to achieve the required capacity.
The City will now propose a supplementary budget of JPY5m (£39,000/€43,000/$47,000) as masterplan fee to the council meeting in September.
Takahashi explained the project will commence sooner rather than later, saying: “We are hoping to start the basic design in the next fiscal year, and then to complete the expansion in four years or so.”
FC Mito HollyHock currently sits sixth in the J2 table, aiming to staying in the promotion play-off picture. The club will apply for the J1 Club License with the 22,002-capacity Kasamatsu Stadium as their proposed home stadium should they finish in the promotion position at the end of the season. Should they fail to finish first, second, or win the promotion play-off to reach the top flight, however, then they will keep playing at the K’s denki Stadium Mito.
Image: J-League
News provided by The Stadium Hub
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