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is a Japanese J. League Division 1 association football club based in Niigata. Despite the club's relative youth, only joining the J. League in 1999, Albirex are one of Japan's best supported teams. In 2003, while still playing in the second tier of Japanese football (J2), Albirex attracted the best average crowd in the country of over 30,000. Since promotion to J1 in 2004 they have recorded an average crowd of over 38,000, and in 2005 Albirex were the first ever club in Japan to record an average gate of over 40,000. ==History== For many years it had been a local autonomous amateur club, ''Niigata 11'', that could never hope to see the light of day in an old Japan Soccer League dominated almost entirely by company teams. The creation of the J. League spurred the club to rise, and in the 1990s it began climbing fast through the divisions.〔''Niigata-Nippo''. 11 years-History of Albirex Niigata (2007), pp. 2–10.〕 In 1998, Albirex Niigata joined the Japan Football League, and was merged into the J2 league after its creation in 1999. The team gradually became competitive and on 2001 and 2002 it came close to getting promoted to J1 and in 2003,〔"Albirex won the promotion slot" ''Niigata-Nippo'': p. 1. 24 November 2003.〕 it became the champion of J2 and finally joined the top flight. The team name is made from combining the star ''Albireo'' of the constellation Cygnus (the Swan) and the Latin word ''Rex'' meaning 'king'. In 1997, due to copyright issues, the team name was changed from ''Albireo Niigata'' to the current ''Albirex Niigata''. In 2007, the uniform color will change. Until 2006, the color was orange – blue – orange, but from 2007 the color will be orange – orange – orange. This coordinate has not been adopted since 1996 when the team professionalized. The success in Albirex Niigata gave a big impact to the entire Japanese sporting world including the professional baseball. It is because commercial correctness of structure of professional sports, and a regional sticking (effectiveness in Japan) was proven also in the local mainstay city. Moreover, it came for clarifying the possession of energy that it was farther larger than the expectation of the sports market in the local city without the population of the metropolitan area in the past, and local city citizens' localism feelings are very bigger to influence other a lot of sports and municipality.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Albirex Niigata」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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