In Hiroshima, New Ballpark Proves a Tough Pitch

"They played night games there, and everyone was so impressed," Watanabe said. "The rich and poor both came. There was only one entertainment in town."

To stave off talk of a takeover in 2004, residents and business leaders responded again.

The local newspaper, the Chugoku Shimbun, featured a story about a boy who had taken his allowance money to the Carp's offices and tried to donate it for a new stadium. During a media-backed campaign over the ensuing year, residents contributed $1 million by throwing their loose change into large sake barrels placed around the city. Finally, the Hiroshima Chamber of Commerce agreed to help fund a new stadium at the current location.

But Mayor Akiba did not sign on until spring 2005, when business leaders reversed course and backed his push to build at the railroad yard, in a poorer part of town teeming with pachinko gambling parlors. The Matsudas, who are not putting up any money, have stayed mum.

"This city has only one active area," explained Toshikuni Nakagawa, a city government official who oversees the project for Akiba. "It needs another one."

Building at the railroad yard is considered less expensive, but Kenji Miyamoto, a city council member who objects to Akiba's plan, said moving the stadium would jeopardize the health of the downtown core.

"Hiroshima is such a small city," Miyamoto said. "We only need one city center."

For Akiba, the effort has been arduous at times. Last November, he was forced to postpone a stadium design competition after three of four companies bidding on the project were implicated in a national bid-rigging scandal. This spring, the mayor received in the mail a package containing a knife and a letter expressing opposition to the stadium plan.

Akiba recently relaunched the design contest, and a decision is due next month. Among the hopefuls is a U.S. company proposing a Major League Baseball-style ballpark with office space, a hotel and a health club.

But the fans have not stopped lobbying. A day after the Carp lost 8-2 to the Swallows, Sumiko Kuramoto, who founded a Carp citizens' group in 2004, said she hoped city officials would reconsider their plans and rebuild downtown.

"When the city told us of their decision, we were astonished and disappointed," Kuramoto said. "We did not understand why the stadium had to go there. The present place is much better."