For a long time public opinion has cried over the waste at the National Sports Festival of Vietnam, which is organized every four years, with the ten-day 2014 event wrapping up yesterday in the central province of Nam Dinh.

The stands of sports houses and stadiums were empty with just a few fans coming to watch the competitions at the festival, which attracted elite athletes from provinces and cities across the nation.

However, thousands of billions of Vietnamese dong have been spent on the organizing work and building facilities for each festival, which is alternately held by different host provinces.

The latest iteration was organized from December 6 to 16 in Nam Dinh Province, with some other venues in neighboring localities such as Ha Nam, Hanoi and Thai Binh in the north.

Several scandals emerged at this year’s tournament, with wrestler Le Duy Hoi jumping onto the competition mat to beat on-duty referee Nguyen Dinh Hung on December 3.

Just before the attack at the Thai Binh Sports House, Nghiem Xuan Thai – head of the wrestling department of the army team – publicly protested against Hung during the same match because of his purported unfair judgment.

The following day, also in Thai Binh, wrestling coach Dinh Van Kien attacked referee Nguyen Duc Tho, alleging that the referee made unfair judgments.

Besides the scandals, another problem that marred the latest festival was the lack of spectators in the stands.

Witnesses admitted that most events during the 2014 festival had just a few fans watching, except for volleyball games, which attracted more people.

Phung Dinh Huyen, a local from Nam Dinh, admitted, “I and other residents knew the festival was organized in Nam Dinh but we did not care about it.

“Few of us came to watch the events, except some retirees.

“For me, I came to see what the sports house looked like, not to watch sports competitions.

“Volleyball might attract fans, but competing teams at the festival were not as good as those at the annual National Volleyball Championship.”

Nonetheless, billions of Vietnamese dong were invested in building and upgrading stadiums and sports houses, even though there is no plan to use the facilities after the festival.

The 7,500-seat Ha Nam Sports House in Ha Nam Province, located on an area of 120 hectares just two kilometers from the provincial capital of Phu Ly, was built at a cost of over VND1 trillion (US$48.1 million) from the state budget of the central and provincial governments.

Yet it was used to host just one sport: taekwondo.

Actually, a couple of volleyball games were also organized there to test the facility before hosting the Asian Volleyball Clubs’ Championship in May next year.

This is the biggest sports hall in Southeast Asia, confirmed Tran Quoc Toan – deputy director of the Ha Nam Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.

It was planned and built to host the 2018 Asian Games, but Vietnam withdrew their bid to host the event and Indonesia already agreed to take over.

The sports hall sits on a vast area, several kilometers away from the nearest residential areas. There is worry that the facility will be left unused like other sports centers across the nation.

Besides, Nam Dinh Province also invested VND854 billion ($41.1 million) to build a sports house and VND150 billion ($7.2 million) to construct a swimming pool. Thai Binh Province spent VND400 billion ($19.2 million) building a sports house for the 2014 festival.

Do Thanh Xuan – director of the Nam Dinh Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism – explained that after the 2014 festival, the facilities will be used to host music shows and will be rented out for wedding parties.

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