(official name: Higashi-Hirao Park Hakatanomori Football Stadium (東平尾公園博多の森球技場), renamed on March 1, 2008 for

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

), is located in the Hakata Ward of

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

Fukuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Fukuoka Prefecture has a population of 5,109,323 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,986 Square kilometre, km2 (1,925 sq mi). Fukuoka Prefecture borders ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It is the home ground of the

J1 League The , the J.League or the for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Japan and the highest level of the Japanese football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation ...

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

club Avispa Fukuoka.

History

Best Denki Stadium is located in Higashi Hirao Park (commonly known as "Hakata no Mori" (博多の森)), Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture. This park has been built as a sports park in the hills near the city-town border with Shime Town, Kasuya District, which is adjacent to the east side of the runway at Fukuoka Airport. This is Fukuoka City's first football-specific stadium, which was constructed in 1995 to serve as the main soccer venue for the Universiade Fukuoka Tournament held in Fukuoka. The stadium also hosts

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

matches, including a few international matches,

Top League Japan Rugby League One (), formerly known as the Top League (), is a rugby union competition in Japan. It is the highest level of professional rugby competition in the country. The Japan Rugby Football Union created the competition in 2003, by ...

games, Top League Challenge series and Top

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...

league games. It was also host to four games (two match days) in the IRB Junior World Championship 2009, including the 7th place play-off and 5th place play-off on July 21, 2009. The stadium was one of the venues for

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup () was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening matc ...

which was the first

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

to be held in Asia. During the games, to which the clean stadium regulations were applied, the stadium used the name of "Hakatanomori Stadium". The stadium's

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

is 21,562; and it can be accessed by the 15–20 minutes walk or a short bus ride from Fukuoka Airport.

Naming rights

This stadium was well-known as "Level-5 Stadium" in 2008–2019 seasons, which was named after the game software company. After that, Level-5 announced that it would not renew the naming-right contract in 2020 season, so the new sponsors were recruited. As a result, " Best Denki" which is the home electronics mass retailer headquartered in Fukuoka city has acquired the naming rights. Therefore, this stadium has been using the name of "Best Denki Stadium" (abbreviation: Bes-Sta (ベススタ)) since March 1, 2020.

International Matches

Association football

3–2

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

(

Kirin Cup The is an association football tournament organised in Japan by the Kirin Brewery Company. The host, Japan national football team, Japan, is a participant in every edition. The tournament was founded in 1978 then known as Japan Cup (Internatio ...

, 29 May 1996) * Japan 2–0 South Korea (Final, Football at the

1995 Summer Universiade The 1995 Summer Universiade, also known as the XVIII Summer Universiade, took place in Fukuoka, Japan. Emblem The symbol mark is a motif of "U", expressing passion and energy in the flickering flames of a burning torch. In the flames one sees bo ...

, 2 September 1995) * Myanmar–Lebanon, (Friendly match), 19 November 2024

Rugby

21 Australia A 42 (IRB

Pacific Nations Cup The Pacific Nations Cup is an international rugby union competition held between Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Canada, Japan and the United States. First held in 2006, the tournament is intended to strengthen the Tier 2 rugby teams by providing competitiv ...

, June 8, 2008) *

121

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

0 (

2013 Asian Five Nations The 2013 Asian Five Nations, known as the 2013 HSBC Asian 5 Nations due to the tournament's sponsorship by the HSBC, was the 26th Asian Five Nations rugby union tournament, and the sixth since it was rebranded from the Asian Rugby Championship i ...

, April 20, 2013) *

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

7 (

, September 26, 2019) *

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

9 (2019 Rugby World Cup, October 2, 2019) *

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...

5 (2019 Rugby World Cup, October 12, 2019)

References

External links

東平尾公園（博多の森）
Fukuoka City
AVISPA FUKUOKA Official Website
{{Authority control Football venues in Japan Rugby union stadiums in Japan Rugby in Kyushu Sports venues in Fukuoka Avispa Fukuoka 1995 establishments in Japan Sports venues completed in 1995