The current Stadium, used for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, held its last sporting event last month as Japan successfully secured a spot in the 2015 Rugby World Cup with victory over Hong Kong in the Asian Five Nations rugby tournament.

A celebratory Ceremony was also held on Saturday (May 31) as a last chance to pay respect to the Stadium before it is demolished in July.

As the old Stadium makes way for the new Zaha Hadid-designed National Olympic Stadium, which has faced much criticism ever since the Games were awarded to Tokyo last September, due to ever-increasing costs, size and environmental concerns, the Japan Sport Council is hoping to sell old fixtures - such as royal seats and manhole covers - in order to part-finance the new venue.

A special Ceremony was held at the Stadium on Saturday to give fans a last chance to pay their respects before it is demolished to make room for the new National Stadium
©The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images


The Council, which owns the old National Stadium, also announced the donation of items, including 15,000 seats and the benches used during football matches, to 12 local authorities in Japan.

The recipients of these gifts include areas seriously affected by the tsunami and earthquake of March 2011, Kitakami, a city in the Iwate Prefecture, and Date, in the Fukushima Prefecture.

Toshihiko Takahashi, Mayor of Kitakami, whose athletics Stadium will be a venue for the 71st National Sports Festival of Japan, expressed his delight over the donation in a press conference held in the city offices.

"We want to make the most of these seats, from which the passion of so many athletes has been seen, and let people across the nation know how much we've recovered [from the disaster]," he said.

All sorts of fixtures from the old Stadium will be available to purchase including royal seats and manhole covers with "National Stadium" engraved onto them ©t2.piq



The stadium fixtures on sale include five types of seats, ranging from Royal Seats for honoured guests at ¥250,000 ($2,438/£1,455/€1,793) per pair to non-reserved seats with no back rest for ¥5,800 ($56.56/£33.76/€41.58) to ¥6,800 ($66.3/£39.58/€48.76) each, manhole covers with the words "National Stadium" engraved on them for ¥20,200 ($196.95/£117.62/€144.74) each and signs indicating seating locations for ¥10,000 ($97.52/£58.21/€71.68), among others.

Also up for sale are specially produced candle holders in the shape of the Olympic cauldron that use granite as the plinth.

These will be sold for ¥19,800 ($141.93/£115.26/€141.93).

Sections of turf in five centimetre square sections are offered for ¥1,800 ($17.55/£10.48/€12.9), though some sections are likely to be given to local governments due to the large volume of requests for the stadium's turf.

The sale period started Saturday (Monday 31) with the fixtures available on a first come first serve basis until September 30.

To purchase any of the parts, click here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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