Team Data: Thespa Kusatsu
Team Name:
Team Logo & Mascot:  
Team Flag:
Home Uniform Away Uniform
 
Home StadiumGunma Stadium
Seats 23,000
Team Data:
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Management Corporation: | Kusatsu Onsen Football Club Co., Ltd. | |
Established: | 13 January 1997
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President: |
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Investors: | Consortium of local companies, and the local government | |
Address: | 464-28 Kusatsu-cho,
Agatsuma-gun, Gunma 377-1711 | |
Hometown Area: | Kusatsu, Shibukawa, Takasaki and Maebashi cities, Gunma Prefecture | |
Home Stadium: | Kashima Soccer Stadium (capacity:41,800) | |
Joined J. League: | 2005 |
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Thespa Kusatsu is a relatively new team which was established, in part, as a way to bring publicity to the Kusatsu Hot Springs Resort, in northren Tochigi prefecture. The team burst onto the scene in 2002 and 2003 when, just a few years after its founding (in 1997), the team made up its mind to seek a place in the J2, and started taking steps to win promotion to the J.League.
The team name, Thespa, is pronounced like some sort of ersatz Italian pasta dish (" ZA-spa "), but its origin comes from the hot springs resort area that serves as its home town: ("The Spa" . . . Get it?). Though no more ridiculous than some of the other team names that have been created in Japan's footballing community, this one has a very unique "ring" to it, and has earned the team as much press coverage as their actual performances.
The team got a huge boost when two former Kashima Antlers players -- Ryosuke Okuno and Carlo Alberto de Sousa Santos -- joined former national team goalkeeper Nobuyuki Kojima as team coaches and players. Though all were well past their prime (Santos was a spry 43), their skills and experience were enough to help the team win promotion to the JFL for the start of the 2004 season. Several younger J.League players, tired of riding the bench at their existing clubs, signed aboard despite the fact that they had to take part-time work on the side (JFL teams are amateur, in name at least. Player usually get a share of the bonus money paid based on their ranking in the JFL final standings, but most need to work at least part time to make ends meet).
In 2005, the silver-haired Kojima and his gang of part-time hotel workers at the tiny hot-springs resort fought to a third place finish in the JFL, qualifying for promotion to the J2 in 2005. To top off a magnificent season, the team put on a show in the Emperor's Cup tournament that wrote a cinderella story of epic proportions. After an astonishing upset of J1 stragglers Oita Trinita, Thespa were paired with the League Champion Yokohama Marinos in what everyone assumed would be a proud but futile final stand. But against all the odds, Thespa held the Marinos to a 1-1 draw in regular time -- despite being reduced to nine men -- and in the first period of golden goal extra time, scored an earth-shattering goal that tossed the reigning J.League champs out of the tournament.
Unfortunately, upsets like this one do not happen on a regular basis, and despite their cinderella run in 2004, the team has found it difficult to turn the initial fan interest into a substantial cash flow from match tickets. Furthermore, many of the veteran players who contributed to the team's bid for J.League entry were too old to continue contributing at the J2 level, and Thespa has not been able to attract too many quality youngsters, as of yet. Their performance in 2005 and 2006 was very disappointing, and nearly as pusillanimous as the results recorded by Ventforet Kofu in its first few years in the league.
Of course, the example of Ventforet shows that even a weak team can turn itself around if it can attract local fan support and develop a strong team spirit. So far, Thespa have not been able to do that, and it is likely to be a few years before they even can hope for midtable mediocrity. But at least the team from Gunma has managed to climb off the bottom of the table. Perhaps this year they can even reach the midway point of a newly expanded league.
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 Before
After | Yuto-kun
Yuto-kun, Thespa Kusatsu's mascot began life as just a kid playing football, as you can see from the original mascot, above. However, as Thespa has steadily adopted a "lion-dog" (shishi) image in its team crest and other design features of the team, Yuto-kun has undergone a metamorphosis into a sort of half-devil (oni) half-lion. It is probably just a matter of time before he is redesigned again and becomes almost completely lion-like. Not that the design is a bad one -- it isnt. But Yuto bears as much resemblance to a lion-dog as I do to Ronaldinho.
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National Team
Overseas Players
