In recent years there has been a rise in conglomerate football clubs with the City Football Group (CFG) owning the likes of Manchester City, New York City FC, Melbourne City, Yokohama F. Marinos and about 10 other teams. Elsewhere, Red Bull possess FC Red Bull Salzburg, RB Leipzig and New York Red Bulls among others. Last year it was announced that the Austrian energy drinks giant had aquired Omiya Ardija thereby making their first inroads into the Japanese football market.

After a torrid five or six years, Omiya fell into J3 for the first time and a change of  ownership with fresh input really was needed. Admittedly, when the Red Bull takeover was announced last year they were already on the verge of bouncing back to J2 and I’m sure many expect(ed) them to achieve back-to-back promotions with the added investment behind them as part of the new commercial structure.

Tickets sold out for their opening game of the season which was proabably not too surprising given their 2024 title success as well as the rise in optimism on the back of the takeover. The average attendance this season has been just over 11,000 compared to 7,500 in 2024 so the financial fizz injected by Red Bull really has energised the club in that aspect.

When the likes of Salzburg and Leipzig became part of the energy drink empire, fans in Austria and Germany showed their disappointment, frustration and anger at the fact that the respective clubs rise was artificial and unfair to those teams with more traditional and organic growth. It was seen as a marketing tool rather than a genuine football club as names, badges and shirt colours were all changed.

Football culture is very different in Japan though and in contrast the Omiya fans generally seem (?)  to have been okay with the change, and have accepted the transition without too much backlash which certainly fits in with the Japanese stereotype of not kicking up much of a fuss in any situation.

Omiya Ardija’s traditions have been their orange kits and squirrel (Ardija is the Japanese bastardization of Ardilla; the Spanish word for squirrel) badge but both of those have gone. The squirrel has sadly disappeared from the badge for good making way for an all-too-familiar generic RB design.

The jerseys have changed to navy blue although there is still some orange on the sleeves,  and the shorts and socks have stayed that colour. The goalkeeper also now wears orange, and the supporters seem to be just thankful that the colour hasn’t disappeared altogether!  As an outsider, I think it’s very sad that they no longer have orange home shirts but I have to admit that I really do like this season’s Ardija shirts.

Known as RB Omiya Ardija these days, the club play at Nack5 which is one of my favourite stadiums to visit, and I really wanted to return there this year to see with my own eyes how the transition to the Red Bull empire has gone thus far. The impact was noticable as soon as I left Omiya station with the club’s new badge on the local shopping street opposite.

Signs for a Red Bull stamp rally were fairly frequent too en-route to the stadium.  Collecting such stamps (not the postal ones!) is a popular pastime in Japan and a good marketing idea to get people visiting various places to get the stamps in return for some prizes.

The match I attended on August 9th was a big one with Omiya lying in fourth and their opponents JEF United in second. It was actually a repeat of my first time at the Nack5 Stadium a decade ago. On that occasion the home team were triumphant but what would be the story ten years on?

A much younger me!

The amount of navy shirts that have been sold this year must be really high as there were so many fans wearing them. Or maybe it’s just because navy is a more suitable colour for wearing on a matchday rather than the more vivid orange!! I did feel like I was at a Formula One race though at times pre-match as that is where I am used to seeing fans walking around in such similar attire.

They may have new investment from a foreign company but they still can’t spell basic English words like fan club!

What is a fun culb?!!

There were long lines for the club shop which presumably sold all manner of goods emblazened with the RB name.

As for the energy drink itself, there were also some limited edition Red Bull cocktails on sale for around 700-800 yen as well as the usual stadium gourmet.

One of my favourite parts of the matchday experience at Omiya was always hearing the teams announced to the A-Team theme tune but that has now gone, and been replaced with ‘Seven Nation Army‘ which is all a bit too sports-generic these days, and I say that as someone who is a big fan of the creator Jack White.

As the teams entered the field, some huge spots of rain began to fall and I was bracing myself for a heavy downpour but thankfully it never surfaced.

JEF are another team who basically have a company name (or two!) in their name by way of JR (Japan Rail) East and Furukawa Electric; their two corporate sponsors. From the kick off, they sure had an electric start and had two chances in the opening minute before the home side got into something of a groove.

Omiya hit the post and forced their opponents goalie to make a great save but I felt JEF were the better team in the first 45 minutes. It remained 0-0 at the break though.

The away team, backed by a healthy travelling contingent, were again off to a flyer as the second period got underway and they scored a bullet header within a few minutes of the restart.

Omiya huffed and they puffed but they just could not find a way through to level things up, and eventually time ran out for them.

Final Score: RB Omiya Ardija 0-1 JEF United

On account of this match, the Omiya fans may have to be a little more patient than expected but with Red Bull’s backing I am very confident that they’ll be promoted to the top flight sooner rather than later. Love them or hate them, Red Bull is a very stable organisation so that makes them better owners than many others out there these days. Whilst the initial changes to the club’s traditions seem to have been accepted by the majority, it will be interesting to see how those same supporters will feel if orange is phased out or if Nack5 gets renamed the Red Bull Arena.

Click here to read ‘TF Top 12……Football Match Day Experiences In 2024 (Part 3)’

Click here to read ‘Super Sunday Soccer In Saitama’ 

Click here to read ‘Tokyo Daytripper: Top 10 Saitama Sights

Click here to read ‘Tokyo Daytripper: The Omiya Bonsai Art Museum’