Lemon Gas Stadium Hiratsuka

Hiratsuka has kept this ground under three names in a little over a decade. It was plain Hiratsuka Stadium from March 1987 until 2012, when BMW bought the naming rights and it became Shonan BMW Stadium Hiratsuka. Lemon Gas took over in 2020.

That municipal ownership shows in what the place is asked to do. It is not a football-only bowl. The running track and field events remain part of the calendar — the All Japan University Track & Field Challenge is held here — and Shonan Bellmare share the ground with them.

The two matches most often recalled here sit on either side of a season. In the second leg of the 2018 J.League Cup semi-final, Bellmare drew 2-2 with Kashiwa Reysol and went through 5-4 on penalties, then won the final. A year later, on 7 August 2019, the same club met Athletico Paranaense here in the J.League Cup / Copa Sudamericana Championship and lost 4-0, with 9,129 in the ground.

The 2017 J2 title, which sent Bellmare back up to J1, was settled in part on this pitch. The biggest league crowd the club has drawn here came long before that, on 16 March 1994, when 16,131 watched them play Yokohama Marinos.