New opportunities for Ho Chi Minh City sports

On the basis of merging Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Ho Chi Minh City has been given the opportunity to develop sports based on the combined strengths of the three localities.

Ho Chi Minh City Sports has long played a leading role, not only because of the diversity of investment in developing sports and outstanding competition achievements, but also because of its positive contributions to the country's sports in many aspects.

Solutions for the future

In the general development process of the country, although Ho Chi Minh City still maintains its pioneering position, sports have many bottlenecks. The population is increasing, land funds are becoming more and more limited and many essential facilities serving sports are deteriorating over time.

The system of discovering and training sports talents in Ho Chi Minh City is facing difficulties due to the lack of adjacent resources. The physical infrastructure system of the sports industry is both insufficient and weak, unable to meet the training needs of the people, let alone serving the need to improve the level of the elite athletes.

Solutions for the future of sports in the "super city" Ho Chi Minh City were suggested very positively after the process of merging administrative units, especially from the conclusion of the Conference discussing the draft project to arrange the Department of Culture - Sports of Ho Chi Minh City and the Department of Culture - Sports - Tourism of the two provinces of Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau .

There is no situation of mechanically assembling one unit into another as imagined by many people. The leaders of the culture and sports sectors of the three localities have a unified view: Merging to promote the strengths of each locality, complementing and supplementing each other, forming a leading national cultural and sports super center.

The merger of sports units is identified as not only a change in organizational structure, but also a big step forward in the sports development strategy in the "super city" of Ho Chi Minh City, ensuring an effective operating apparatus, better meeting the needs of society.

Remove bottlenecks

There have been conflicting opinions about Ho Chi Minh City's proposal to host the 10th National Sports Festival in 2026 with the participation of 63 provinces and cities. Now, after the merger, how will the localities organize and calculate the achievements? Not to mention, from this launching pad, will Vietnam's top sports withdraw or exert their strength in the international arena?

According to Nguyen Nam Nhan, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Sports of Ho Chi Minh City, when hosting the 10th National Sports Festival, Ho Chi Minh City faced many challenges due to degraded infrastructure and many buildings that were not renovated. Ho Chi Minh City also did not have any new large-scale projects after decades.

Phu Tho Sports Stadium will be a venue to host the 2026 National Sports Festival. Photo: NGUYEN VAN

The 10th National Sports Festival is scheduled to open in October 2026. However, it was not until April 2025 that many key projects such as Hoa Lu Sports Center, Phu Tho Swimming and Diving Club, Phu Tho Sports Gymnasium, and Phu Tho Sports Training Center were started to be renovated, repaired, and upgraded. In particular, the project to build a new Hoa Lu Talented Athletes Training Center and the project to renovate Thong Nhat Stadium are only expected to be implemented at the end of this year.

The removal of bottlenecks for Ho Chi Minh City sports has been boosted after the merger of localities, and Binh Duong and Ba Ria - Vung Tau sports are determined to join hands for a new opportunity. In the immediate future, the areas in Ba Ria - Vung Tau, with their strengths in beaches and hotel accommodation systems, will host 10 sports, mainly related to the sea, at the 2026 National Sports Festival.

Meanwhile, Binh Duong (old) will host 5 official competitions at the congress, including: boxing, Jujitsu, petanque, dance sports and cycling. Road cycling will be organized to compete on beautiful, quality roads passing through Bau Bang, Ben Cat, Thu Dau Mot, Tan Uyen, Thuan An, and the petanque stadium will soon be completed by the end of 2025.

The sports sector in Ho Chi Minh City is expected to completely resolve the problems and devote all its efforts to a new era with clear opportunities and challenges. Only by being united can everyone take sports in the city named after Uncle Ho to a new level.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/van-hoi-moi-cua-the-thao-tp-hcm-196250706200949518.htm