Football: J-League rediscovering fervor upon fans’ full-scale return

With J-League fans allowed to once more fill stadiums to capacity and vocally cheer for their teams, the opening two weeks of the season have shown positive signs that venues are returning to their pre-coronavirus norm.

“The bright atmosphere inside the venues is different from last year,” J-League Chairman Yoshikazu Nonomura said recently. “I can sense that things are going back to what they were before the pandemic.”

The average attendance per match this season has been 18,469 for J1 and 8,089 for J2 in the opening two rounds of fixtures.

The averages were 14,328 and 5,019 for the whole of l...