I read ‘Earning is Everything: B.League as the Ultimate Business Model’ by Ashihara Kazumasa, so I’ll share the insights I gained from this book.

Background: Interested in Sports Business

I’ve always wanted to try sports business someday, and when I came across a book about B.LEAGUE’s business model, I decided to read it 🏀

Here are quotes and notes from the sections that impressed me most.

Chapter 2: Kawabuchi-Style Leadership Theory That Became DNA [Leadership Theory]

01 The Unforgettable First Meeting

"This was a truly 'Kawabuchi-san-like' statement that upheld Players First. It was the moment I got authorization. I also vividly remember him saying 'Thank you. That was a good meeting' and 'A good group of members is coming together' as he left."

「プレイヤーズファーストを掲げてきた、まさに「川淵さんならでは」の発言だった。オーソライズを得た瞬間だった。また帰り際に「ありがとう。良い会議だった」「良い感じのメンバーがそろってきたな」とおしゃってくださったことも鮮明に覚えている。」

"I realized then that true leaders have 'high listening skills, and when they do speak, they use only simple expressions. Above all, they are unpretentious and always open.'"

「本物のリーダーは、「傾聴力が高く、話したとしても、シンプルな表現のみ。そして何よりも飾らない。いつだってオープンだ」と、このとき、気づいたのでした。」

💡 Since I tend to talk for long periods while thinking, I want to practice using simple expressions.

Chapter 4: Target "Youth" and "Women" [Marketing Strategy Theory]

01 Strictly Segmenting Target Audiences

"While it's common to conduct marketing to capture light fan segments to expand new fans, as we continued analyzing light fan attributes, we realized it's more important to understand the mechanism of 'who core fans want to invite' and 'what information would make them want to invite others.'"

「ライトなファン層を取り込むためのマーケティングを行うことで、新たなファンの拡大を図るのが一般的だが、私たちはライトファンの属性分析を続けていくうちに、コアファンが「誰を誘いたくなるか」「どういう情報を伝えれば誘おうと思うか」というメカニズムを解釈することのほうが大切だと気づかされたのだ。」

💡 The key is “Who do core fans want to invite?”

04 What We Focused on to Develop a Marketing Mindset

"Attendance can be analyzed as 'Unique Users × Rotation Rate (annual average attendance),' but perhaps because they want to be loved by many customers, some managers surprisingly focus on unique user numbers."

「入場者数は「ユニークユーザー × 回転率（年平均入場回数）」で分析できるが、たくさんのお客様に愛されたいからか、意外とユニークユーザー数にこだわってしまう経営者もいる。」

💡 Attendance = UU × Rotation Rate

"From various sports marketing analyses over the years, the cost of bringing someone completely uninterested once is 6 times higher than the cost of getting someone who currently comes 5 times to come 6 times. While this is phase-dependent, the standard approach is to first gather highly loyal fans and implement measures to increase their rotation rate."

「昔からスポーツマーケティングでさまざまな分析をしているが、全く興味ない人を1回連れてくるコストは、今5回来ている人を6回にするコストより、6倍かかってしまう。あくまでもフェーズ論ではあるが、まずは手堅くロイヤルティーの高いファンを集めて、その回転率を高める施策が王道だと捉えている。」

💡 Measures to increase loyal customer rotation rate are more effective than new customer acquisition.

Chapter 5: B.LEAGUE Style! The Essence of Making Money [Sales Theory]

01 Multi-Directional Development Based on Business Strategy

"B.LEAGUE doesn't call them sponsors, but partners. This is because instead of the traditional discussion about billboard exposure value and cost-effectiveness, we take a stance of sharing B.LEAGUE's three principles and thinking about business strategy together from the planning stage. This is also why we limit the number of partners to just a few companies."

「B.LEAGUEではスポンサーとは呼ばずパートナーと呼んでいる。これは旧来的な看板を切り売りした露出価値、そしてその費用対効果といった昔ながらの議論ではなく、B.LEAGUEの3つの理念を共有し、事業戦略を考えるところから一緒に、というスタンスだからである。パートナーを数社に絞っているのもこのためだ。」

💡 Call them “partners” instead of “sponsors.”

"Creating scarcity. J.League has 10 contract partners. Since managing 10 companies would be challenging for B.LEAGUE's current scale, we limited it to 5 companies and set higher amounts per company. Within this framework, instead of traditional exposure value discussions, we focus on providing customized value that addresses each company's challenges using data, tailored to each company's needs."

「希少性を上げること。Jリーグの契約パートナーは10社である。10社と付き合うのは現状のB.LEAGUEの規模ではハードルが高いので、5社と限定。1社当たりの金額を高めに設定した。そのなかで、旧来的な露出価値の話ではなく、データを活用した企業の課題にコミットするようにカスタマイズして1社1社のニーズにあわせた価値を提供することを重視した。」

💡 J.League has 10 contract partners, B.League has 5

That’s all from the Gemba.