Niigata Albirex Baseball Club
| Sport | Baseball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2006 |
| Inaugural season | 2007 |
| President | Murayama Tetsuji |
| No. of teams | 8 |
| Country | Japan |
| Most recent champion(s) |
Niigata Albirex Baseball Club |
| Most titles | Ishikawa Million Stars (4) |
| Official website | http://www.bc-l.jp/ |
The Route Inn BCL, formerly known as the Baseball Challenge League (ベースボール・チャレンジ・リーグ Bēsubōru Charenji Rīgu), is an independent semi-professional baseball league in Japan. The league's abbreviated designation is "BC League (BCリーグ)."
The Baseball Challenge League has two divisions, Future—East and Advance—West, with four teams in each division. Not every team has a home stadium; instead, the team travels around its home prefecture, playing in different stadiums, each one called "home” for that game.
The 72-game season runs from April–October, split into two half-terms, with the division champion from each half-term meeting in a playoff at the end of the year to determine which two teams compete for the league championship. Each team carries 27 players.
Typically, players earn 150,000 yen (c. U.S. $2,000) per month, with another 50,000 yen in potential bonuses. The league imposes a 7.2 million yen (c. U.S. $60,600) salary limit for team managers.
The BC League began play in 2007 as the Hokushinestu Baseball Challenge League. It originally consisted of four teams based in the Hokuriku region: the Ishikawa Million Stars, the Niigata Albirex Baseball Club, the Shinano Grandserows, and the Toyama Thunderbirds. In 2008 the league added two teams, Gunma Diamond Pegasus and the Fukui Miracle Elephants, and split into two divisions, Jōshin'etsu (Gunma, Shinano, and Niigata) and Hokuriku (Fukui, Ishikawa, and Toyama).
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