Mito HollyHock, the professional football club based in Mito City, has recently risen to the J1 League. With the promotion, the team will be setting up its clubhouse in a formerly closed school, turning a symbol of rural decline into a beacon of sporting ambition. This move echoes a broader trend in Japan's smaller cities, where forgotten infrastructure finds a new lease on life as community revitalization projects.

In Japan, sports are viewed as an important tool to revitalise small towns and rural areas facing decline due to an aging population and dwindling birth rates. Football clubs, in particular, have been known to take on the responsibility of becoming community magnets, fostering unity and pride among residents. The repurposing of abandoned schools into clubhouses is part of such broader efforts.

In the US or EU, vacant buildings or old schools are also frequently reused and converted into community spaces, arts venues, and sports facilities, but the scale of the rusting infrastructure problem is not as pronounced due to a less rapidly aging population.