Five thousand will be the key number for the Japanese basketball scene when the new B. League tips off this fall.

Japan Basketball Association president Saburo Kawabuchi, during his time as co-chairman of the Japan 2024 Task Force, set the figure as the minimum capacity for arenas to be used by teams in the new league. The B. League is a merger of the two top men's leagues — the NBL and bj-league.

For many teams, the figure looked like a tall order. In their on-going final seasons, the NBL had managed only an average of 1,728 fans per game through April 10, while the bj-league averaged 1,554 through last weekend's contests.