The marketing of Sendai 89ers, the team of Japanese professional basketball player Yang Jae-min (Sendai), is at an amazing level.

Sendai will play a two-game series against Lee Dae-sung's team, Seahorse Mikawa, in the '2023-24 Season B. League Regular League' at 2 PM on the 9th and 4 PM on the 10th at Zevio Arena Sendai, Sendai's home stadium in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. have

Currently, Sendai is in 4th place in the Eastern Division with 7 wins and 9 losses.

 Seahorse Mikawa, with 8 wins and 8 losses, is ranked 4th in the Central Division. The first match of the season between national team senior and junior Lee Dae-seong (33, Mikawa) and Yang Jae-min, who are active in Japanese professional basketball in the Asian quarter, is attracting attention. 메이저 토토사이트

Sendai has designated the two-game weekend match between Korean players as 'Korea Day' and holds many events. On this day, you can taste Korean food such as gimbap and hot dogs that you cannot normally see at the stadium. In particular, 'Yang Jae-min's Delicious Lunchbox', which consists of Yang Jae-min's favorite side dishes, will also be sold. Yang Jae-min is actively utilizing the advantage of being popular among female fans with high purchasing power for product sales and promotion.

In addition, Sendai signed a marketing agreement with Korean food company ‘Nongshim Japan’. Korean ramen will be provided as a gift to the first 1,000 fans who come to the stadium on this day. Sendai cheering goods engraved with the Korean cheering phrases ‘I love you’ and ‘Fighting’ will also be introduced for the first time.

There is another big gift. On 'Korea Day', the club plans to give fans two round-trip airline tickets between Sendai and Seoul through a drawing, sponsored by the Korea Tourism Organization. It was surprising that such a large event could be held in a regular league game, not even a championship game.

The reporter went to Sendai at the end of October to report on Jaemin Yang. At the time, the Sendai club was already promoting ‘Korea Day’ through the electronic display board. There were more than 5 weeks left until the main event. The purpose was to advertise various Korea Day package tickets using Yang Jae-min. I was quite shocked when the club employee explained, “If you don’t reserve tickets a month in advance, you won’t get a seat.”

In Japan, you cannot find spectators purchasing tickets at the stadium to enter. This is because most spectators reserve tickets at least two weeks in advance. Admission tickets also took the form of scanning a QR code on a smartphone, so you couldn't even look at the paper ticket.

Five Sendai club employees visited Korea at the end of November. The reason they came to Korea was to make the 'Korea Day' event even more successful. A Sendai official said, “To celebrate Korea Day, we would like to visit Jaemin Yang’s alma mater and introduce the restaurant Jaemin Yang recommends to Japanese fans.”

The reporter visited the basketball team of Yang Jae-min's alma mater, Samsun Middle School, along with Sendai officials. A photo of Jaemin Yang receiving the MVP award after leading Samseon Middle School to victory in the 2014 Boys Sports Festival was seen in the gym. Sendai team officials captured Yang Jae-min's traces on video, including the name he wrote on the wall when he was in middle school. It was to be screened on the electronic display board at Sendai's home stadium on 'Korea Day'.

Coach Han Gyu-hyeon of Samseon Middle School said about his student Yang Jae-min, “He was a child who only knew basketball since he was a student. He lived in an apartment right behind the school. He exercised diligently from morning to evening. I am proud to have advanced to Japanese professional basketball. “I want to visit Japan to see Jaemin play,” he said. Sendai officials captured everything in Japan, from an interview with a coach to a dumpling restaurant in front of the school that Jaemin Yang liked.

The B.League Secretariat announced on the 1st, “The Sendai vs. Mika match between Jaemin Yang and Daesung Lee will be broadcast live on the B.League International YouTube channel.” Until now, there was no way to watch Japanese professional basketball in Korea. They lowered the barrier so that Korean fans could enter Japanese professional basketball as much as possible. Korean players are being utilized to the fullest extent in the success of Japanese professional basketball.

In the case of KBL, many Filipino Asian quota players are playing. There are many Filipino fans living in Korea. Thanks to this, Filipino fans also began to take a lot of interest in KBL. However, it is true that marketing activities targeting them are lacking.

Now is the era where professional teams from Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Japan interact during the season through the East Asian Super League (EASL). Japan is actively utilizing Korean players to make money. KBL also needs to find ways to better promote Korean basketball to the world and actively utilize it for marketing.