Machida GION Stadium

Machida GION Stadium sits in the western Tokyo suburb of Machida and has been since 1990 the home ground of FC Machida Zelvia, a club that only earned its first promotion to Japan's top tier, the J1 League, in 2023. With a capacity of 15,489 spectators the stadium is small by J1 standards - the league requires at least 15,000 seats, and Machida just clears the threshold. The "GION" name comes from the Japanese telecoms company GION Co. Ltd., which has held the naming rights since 2018; before that it was simply Machida Athletic Stadium. The combined football pitch and athletics track makes the atmosphere on match days less intimate than at dedicated football grounds. Because of the limited capacity and atmosphere, the club is building a new 30,000-seat dedicated football stadium to be ready by 2027.