Sports economics is understood as an economic science, researching and developing aspects such as business, production, and consumption in the field of sports. In other words, sports economics means looking at sports from an economic perspective.
How is the sports economy in different countries?
Sports economics considers sports not only as training, entertainment or competition activities to seek achievements, but also to create both material and spiritual values. The concept of sports economics has appeared in many countries around the world, especially in developed sports countries such as the US, China, Japan, Korea, France, Germany, England... because of the great values in terms of profit, political position, infrastructure, and tourism promotion that sports bring.
The "That's My Vietnam" race attracted more than 21,000 participants, contributing to promoting the country's tourism.
PHOTO: Organizing Committee
The Beijing Olympics (2008) brought China a profit of 1 billion yuan (equivalent to 3,186 billion VND, according to the exchange rate 17 years ago). But above all, it was China's new position on the global sports map, along with a widespread sports movement, creating a network of talent and a professional sports system that helped the world's most populous country regularly win high positions at the Olympics. Similarly, the 2022 World Cup has raised the status of Qatar, when billions of dollars poured into the organization have helped the Gulf country create a spectacular "explosion" to stimulate investment from world powers.
Researchers are no longer unfamiliar with the cash flow worth hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars created and circulated from the world's leading sports tournaments such as the English Premier League, the US professional basketball league, American football, etc. In powerful countries, sports are not only purely about competition, but also a powerful entertainment industry, attracting the attention of millions of fans. Sports exist thanks to "nutrition" from the public, businesses and operate on the basis of market rules, serving social needs. A solid sports economic machine needs to be based on the prerequisite: sports must make money to support and upgrade itself.
Vietnam needs to socialize sports
In Vietnam, making money from sports has only been mentioned and researched in the last 15 or 20 years, and is still in its infancy. Vietnamese sports are divided into two groups: high-performance sports (for professional athletes) and mass sports. Each group has a different responsibility. High-performance sports, or professional sports, are responsible for training athletes to compete in domestic and international tournaments. For a long time, high-performance sports have depended mainly on the state budget.
However, from 2020 to now, the Vietnam Sports Administration estimates that the budget for sports is only about 950 - 1,000 billion VND/year. Vietnam currently invests in about 40 sports, with over 10,000 athletes. On average, each athlete is only invested less than 100 million VND/year (about 8.3 million VND/month). This is a very small number. 8.3 million VND is only to pay monthly salary, not enough to ensure nutrition, not to mention training and international competitions. For example, badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh used to spend his own money to compete in tournaments abroad, like his juniors Nguyen Thuy Linh and Le Duc Phat now. Ly Hoang Nam and Nguyen Hoang Thien are both tennis talents, but they also have to cover many expenses themselves because the budget is not enough.
In the draft decree replacing Decree 152/2018 dated November 7, 2018 of the Government, which the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism assigned the Vietnam Sports Administration to draft and collect comments, it states: "The State encourages organizations, units and individuals to mobilize other legal sources of funding to supplement support and encourage coaches and athletes during training and competition periods". Other funding sources here are understood as money from businesses and sponsors. That is the way to open up the sports economy. Sports must be socialized, that is, opening the way for private businesses and individuals to invest instead of just relying on the budget, then Vietnamese sports can take off.
Why can't Vietnam's sports economy develop? Why can't sports make money to support themselves, but still have to depend on the budget? Expert Doan Minh Xuong analyzed: "For a long time, Vietnamese sports have only focused on "training fighting cocks" according to a centralized model to gain achievements. For many years, there have been sports that still do not have a professional training and competition system, but depend on a closed subsidy model managed by the state at all levels. This is an outdated model, cannot mobilize social resources, does not create attraction for the public to make money. Only when it is operated professionally, thoroughly socialized, with the cooperation of large corporations and enterprises to have revenue (instead of just waiting for the state budget), will the picture of Vietnam's sports economy be different".
In other words, only when sports operate according to the law of supply and demand, that is, providing products and services for sale to the public to make money to "feed" sports itself, will the sports economy have a place to live.
Currently, sports such as football, athletics (running), billiards, pickleball, basketball, eSports... are developing strongly in the event organization sector, with tournaments invested by businesses, bringing in profits of up to billions of dong. Sports have begun to be "softened", no longer a dry achievement, but becoming an entertainment product to serve social needs.
However, these are just the first steps towards creating a fledgling sports economy in Vietnam. (to be continued)
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/kinh-te-the-thao-o-viet-nam-mo-vang-bi-bo-quen-kiem-tien-tu-quy-luat-cung-cau-185250831212922613.htm
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