The City of Kanazawa in Ishikawa Prefecture has announced that Go Go Curry Group has been selected as the preferred naming rights partner for the new Kanazawa Stadium.
The facility is currently in the final phase of redevelopment with its completion scheduled in September before it will be officially opened in February 2024.
If the partnership is signed, as expected, the stadium will be named ‘Kanazawa Go Go Curry Stadium’ with the contract term of five years being worth JPY31.11m (£168,000/€195,000/$213,000) per year.
Kanazawa Stadium is being redeveloped on the site of the former Kanazawa football ground within the Kanazawa Johoku Citizen’s Athletic Park in the Isobe-machi area. The 10,000-capacity stadium will be a four-story building and the area size will be 19,000 square metres.
It will be the home stadium for the local J-League Division 2 (J2) team Zweigen Kanazawa, and will be the first football-dedicated stadium in the Hokuriku region to meet the J-League stadium requirements.
In an effort to obtain funding for the smooth operation of the Kanazawa Stadium, naming rights candidates have been sought since June this year as part of a hometown support campaign. Go Go Curry Group was selected as the preferred partner, with final discussions in order to reach the contract agreement to be held in the near future.
Go Go Curry was founded in 2003 by Hirokazu Miyamori, who was born and raised in Kanazawa, and in an effort to repay the support he had received from his hometown, he relocated the company’s head office from Tokyo to Kanazawa in January this year after two decades of operating his business in the capital.
The group has acquired the renowned Indian curry restaurant brand ‘Hot House’ and Kanazawa-style curry chain ‘Turban Curry’, and now as a whole operates approximately 100 restaurants in Japan and overseas with the aim of becoming the world’s No.1 specialist curry trading company.
Go Go Curry considers the promotion of sports as one of its important missions and in the past has sponsored many activities including the Kanazawa Marathon. It has also supported Keiko Tanaka, a silver medalist in boccia at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and sports ambassador for Ishikawa Prefecture, along with her mother, Takako Tanaka, a ramp operator in boccia.
Makoto Nishihata, CEO and managing director of Go Go Curry, said: “We are thrilled to have an opportunity to become the naming rights partner of the Kanazawa Stadium. Through events and activities held at Kanazawa Go Go Curry Stadium, we truly hope that we can showcase the attractive nature of Kanazawa while contributing to the promotion of sports and culture.”
Article provided by: THE STADIUM HUB
