More on sponsorship
The 2024 National Volleyball Championship is the final season concluding the 20-year journey of the tournament (since 2004) in which experts recorded 18 participating teams (nine men's teams, nine women's teams).
However, looking at this 20-year journey, the most positive point that the teams and players see is that the rewards have increased.
This was achieved by the organizers finding sponsorship sources to help improve the competitive spirit of the athletes. In 2004, the tournament was first called the National Volleyball Championship and the prize for the male and female champions was 70 million VND/tournament.
After that, the championship prize was raised to 100 million VND/tournament. This prize was extended for many seasons and then raised to 150 million VND for each champion team. In 2021, a positive change was clearly seen in the support of social resources when the Vietnam Volleyball Federation signed a sponsorship package of up to 3.5 billion VND/year to increase the prize for each national championship team to 300 million VND/tournament.
From 2022 to 2024, sponsor Duc Giang Chemicals signed a contract with the Vietnam Volleyball Federation to completely change the reward for competition performance. The total reward that the Organizing Committee of the National Volleyball Championship gives for each season is 2 billion 280 million VND. Each team (men's and women's) that wins the national championship will receive a reward of 500 million VND. From the numbers, we can see that the reward level has changed significantly over the past 20 years.
With managers, socialized resources are increasing, Vietnamese volleyball is getting more attention, so the tournament is actively looking for sources of revenue to get big bonuses for players and teams that achieve results.
Transfer is the highlight
In 2010, Vietnamese volleyball had its biggest turning point when the Vietnam Volleyball Federation issued the Regulations on Athlete Transfer. Since then, many athlete transfer deals between teams have taken place.
"The transfer of athletes is an inevitable need and is suitable for sports development" - General Secretary of the Vietnam Volleyball Federation - Mr. Le Tri Truong - once shared.
When players are given more opportunities to transfer to find suitable destinations (without violating regulations), teams have reconsidered their investment and treatment of their athletes. With the birth of the Athlete Transfer Regulations, many corporate teams have also been built by businessmen and enterprises to participate in the national championship. Previously, the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group established a men's volleyball team to compete in the national championship.
Or the case of businessman Bui Phap who invested in developing the Duc Long Gia Lai team during the most exciting period of Vietnamese volleyball (2010 to 2016). Currently, the most typical team representing the model of enterprises investing and competing in the national championship is Duc Giang Lao Cai Chemicals (built by businessman Dao Huu Huyen).
Obviously, each model has its pros and cons. The majority of teams participating in the national championship are still owned by state-owned units or managed by private sectors. However, volleyball professionals across the country see that the self-funded teams of businesses after their establishment help sports managers see fair competition and that investment models all create strengths for volleyball in general. Most importantly, each team knows how to appreciate professional people to maintain achievements.
After 20 years, many teams had to disband and from 2025 the number of teams participating in the National Volleyball Championship is 16 (8 men's teams, 8 women's teams).
The representative of the Vietnam Volleyball Federation affirmed that volleyball is an attractive sport in society, domestic volleyball tournaments are of interest to fans, but when changing to improve the quality of the tournament and facing difficulties in finding long-term investment resources, the problem of finding stability for oneself is always important.
