YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) -- This year's Japan championship was not the DeNA BayStars' only dramatic turnaround, as the franchise, taken over by IT venture capital business DeNA Co. in 2011, now sees blue skies and big crowds at Yokohama Stadium, where attendance was once sparse.

"There was a time when the stands were largely empty," said manager Daisuke Miura, who pitched during the BayStars' lean years before DeNA took over the club.

In 2011, the club's average home attendance of 15,308 was the worst among Nippon Professional Baseball's 12 teams, a poor showing for such a major city.

"Yokohama has a sophisticated image, but our product lacked that," Hiroyuki Hayashi, the head of the team's business operations, said. "We needed to narrow that (perception) gap."

To do that, the team broadened its target from male workers who might frequently go to ball games, to their families, co-workers and girlfriends.

The team distributed around 72,000 caps with the BayStars logo to elementary school and kindergarten students in Kanagawa Prefecture in 2015, and addressed an issue that might prevent women and children from coming by retiling restrooms to make them more appealing.

The BayStars have witnessed a 10-fold increase in the number of women joining the team's fan club over a four-year period.

"We created a space where one could bring a woman on a date," Hayashi said.

A three-game summertime series, the BayStars' "Yokohama Star Night" events, boasted fireworks and large elaborate drone light shows in the sky above the stadium. The promotion was based on the concept that when everyone shines, the team and the city are both energized.

Ticket sales, at least, have been energized. Average attendance surpassed 20,000 in 2014, and, excluding the pandemic years, has increased steadily since.

The BayStars reached their first Japan Series under DeNA in 2017, and Hayashi said the synergy between club and business began.

"We experienced our growth together," Hayashi said after the team reached an average attendance this year of 32,754.

On Nov. 30, as the team celebrated with a victory parade through Yokohama's Minato Mirai district along the city's bayside, team owner Tomoko Namba was overcome with emotion, "The clear sky is a suitable BayStars blue."