I'm going to speak of Sendai local politics, because it's clearly affecting Yuzuru Hanyu. As I won't name the local politician in cause (I don't want it to go further than what directly affects Yuzuru Hanyu, I don't even know his affiliation and I don't really care), I don't send his Tweets along the years.
This local politician, a while ago, published a project of a public ice rink with 8,000 seats, using the name of Yuzuru Hanyu (apparently without asking him), saying that he needed a new rink and all.
Yes, a new rink was needed, but an ice rink with 8,000 seats typically costs above 30M€ to build in Western Europe (I suppose that costs might be higher in Japan with antiseismic building), and its operational costs can be met only if there are typically about 100 sold-out events a year. I have little doubt that Yuzuru Hanyu (and only him) could sell 800,000 tickets a year, but skate 100 times a year, knowing how he exhausts himself in shows? That man stated that funds would be "easy to find" but that meant that either Yuzuru Hanyu's fans would fund it, or he would have been held accountable for the "need" of taxpayers' money; and year after year, Yuzuru Hanyu would have been asked to exhaust himself in skates, literally to death, just for the sake of that man's ambitions, and had Yuzuru Hanyu refused, the deficit, and need for taxpayers subsidies, would have been his fault.
Also, if a show or a competition needs 8,000 seats, there's the multipurpose arena in Rifu, with bus shuttles from Sendai Station, it works fine. Notte Stellata 2023 was held there, and Notte Stellata 2024 will be, as well as some Fantasy on Ice stops, and championships.
Yuzuru Hanyu never mentioned this unsound project.
On last November 28th, was announced the signature of an agreement between the municipality of Sendai and the Xebio corporation, who run the 89ers B-league Basketball team's venue in Sendai, for the refurbishment of this already existing structure, the main space becoming a skating rink along the year and reverting to a Basketball court for meetings (with, I suppose, a new practice court for Basketball); the ice rink being used for private practice; Yuzuru Hanyu welcoming this agreement in a video. The basketball venue is already financially viable thanks to sponsors, and the additional cost of an ice rink is likely to be very reasonable, therefore financially viable.
Now, this same politician denigrates Yuzuru Hanyu for his divorce (!) even in tabloids. I wonder if the advanced state of the project of this arena refurbishment was already known to him around September 10th, when the Wikipedia account of a woman and her relative were changed in a way to make of them objects of political censure, a few days before the first tabloid published an article pretending that she was Yuzuru Hanyu's wife. (She's still the tabloids' "favourite", but I have no idea if she's Yuzuru Hanyu's ex-wife.)
But there are other discontents: the most unreasonable of JSF (Japan Skating Federation) officials. After ten years of both milking and crushing Yuzuru Hanyu, he escaped them by becoming professional, but they were still hoping to milk him further by using his name and ruining his life and reputation and Sendai taxpayers in this unsound project brought forth by "the local politician", while enjoying a new, magnificent public rink to go on with their destructive policies and beam with self-satisfaction.
Ice Rink Sendai is a private rink where clubs affiliated to JSF but rather independent (as they don't need the federation's support to keep practice hours) can practice. The future rink will be even worse (in their viewpoint), not even being used by affiliated clubs. Sendai is likely to remain free from their shenanigans. What can be worse?
