Does a successful sports federation or association mean an efficient economic model?
In 2023, the Vietnam Sports Economic Forum was held for the first time. At that time, the main theme suggested for the participants to focus on was: Promoting the potential of sports economy in the renovation period. This year, the Vietnam Sports Economic Forum was held again and the above theme continued to be maintained.
With its unique mechanism and operation, Vietnamese sports activities in organizing tournaments are dependent on funding provided by the State. How to make sports no longer dependent and each sport self-sufficient in resources, generating profits from its tournaments is a problem that has not yet found a solution.
Positioning tournaments and ways to attract sponsorship or exploit television copyrights to create cash flows into tournaments to help develop sports... are the contents mentioned by many managers at the first Vietnam Sports Economic Forum in 2023.
We have nearly 30 national sports federations and associations. Now, many national competitions are organized by federations and associations and are not entirely dependent on the Department of Physical Education and Sports. Therefore, whether a tournament is successful or not or whether it is a professional tournament or not depends on the implementation of the federations and associations.
Golf, football, and basketball are considered specific examples of doing well in sports economics through tournaments. Success must lie in the revenue stream and the tournament itself has a source of money to pay for activities. The Vietnam Professional Basketball Tournament (VBA) is copyrighted by the Vietnam Basketball Federation and since its inception has affirmed its brand and sold television rights. Audiences accept to buy tickets to watch.
The National Football Championship (V.League) is doing this. The V.League is the most valuable sports copyright tournament in Vietnam (nearly 60 billion VND/season, lasting from 2023 to 2027). At the same time, the tournament has long-term sponsors at all levels. Meanwhile, all national golf tournaments organized by the Vietnam Golf Association each year are 100% independent of the sports industry.
Practical perspectives to find solutions
A grassroots tournament that has great commercial value in the Vietnamese sports market is Vnexpress Marathon. From this tournament, the General Secretary of the Vietnam Athletics Federation - Mr. Nguyen Manh Hung - once shared: "Running tournaments are developing strongly in Vietnam. We must face the reality that the units combine sports with tourism to explore each region, creating excitement for runners to be willing to spend money to buy a bib (race number) to participate.
Now, the tournaments are upgraded by having more foreign athletes competing. That creates attraction, but the important thing is that the value of the tournament is enhanced. Sports tournaments create profits and have a source of tax revenue."
Sports expert Nguyen Hong Minh expressed: “Sports economics is a broad category, sports people always need practical advice from businessmen and investors who have accompanied the sports field. Sports professionals find it difficult to visualize the best economic problem, but economists will understand what is needed for sports to have enough opportunities to make a profit.”
The Vietnam Sports Economic Forum 2024 will hold 3 discussion sessions with the following topics: Creating a legal environment for sports economic development; Economic impact of organizing major sporting events on localities and host units; Exploiting commercial value and benefits surrounding a sports tournament.
