Hiroshima likely to lose its city center baseball stadium

The committee overseeing the project pointed to safety issues, high costs, the likelihood of a renewal project taking until spring 2010 (a year later than city officials hope for), and the economic affects of limited seating during construction being available to the notoriously cash-strapped Carp in its opting for the only other viable location.

The city is hoping to receive financial grants from the national government and hopes that a final decision on the site of the new stadium can be made by the end of July, in time for it to be included in next year's national budget.

There are of course many who oppose the moving of the stadium, not least amongst the fans. The Carp and their stadium have an important symbolic status . Right across from the A-bomb hypocenter they represent the renewal of the city and the resilience of its people. Cynics charge that the city government never really considered renewal of the current stadium seriously, using the proposal as a PR exercise. Mayor Akiba has some major convincing to do.

Construction company executives, however, will be creaming their pants with glee. Assuming that the go agreement can be reaching by the current owners of the goods yard, bids will be taken for the design and construction of the stadium and the inevitably necessary roadwork around it.

Then, of course, what is going to happen to the free space left by the old stadium, slap bang in the center of town?

A city government with real vision would use this as an opportunity to show that Hiroshima really is an environmentally conscious city of peace by linking up the riverside and Chuo Park with Hanover Park and the space left by the stadium to create one of the nation's largest city center parks. We're not going to be laying bets on that one though!

• Chugoku Shimbun article here.