San Vinh: God is sad, God is gone!

(Baonghean.vn) - Vinh Stadium this season is like the lyrics of the song “God is sad” by musician Tran Tien: “God is sad, God is gone”. In the first leg of V-League 2017, although the entrance fee was free for students, only 37 thousand spectators came to the stadium.

Not many people were surprised when the V-League 2017 Organizing Committee announced that the average number of spectators coming to Vinh Stadium was only 5,286 people/match, much lower than the average number of 5,900 people/match of the tournament.

That is simply the reported number, if calculated carefully the number is even lower, there are even matches with only over 1 thousand spectators coming to the stadium. Not only spectators, but also sports reporters coming to Vinh are gradually decreasing, because there are increasingly few big matches here.

In fact, not only this season but before that, Nghe An audiences showed signs of being "bored" with their once-favorite team for many reasons.

Ticket distribution is not smooth for big matches, loyal fans cannot buy tickets to the stadium, the home team wins little, only draws and loses, the team does not have stars to attract viewers. On the field, SLNA players play well but the stands are empty, which is natural.

From the “fire pan” to the “spark” is only a hair’s breadth apart. Photo: DN

Sad grass field

Gone are the days when SLNA was always praised as “Choa’s hometown has an abundance of players/Bamboo shoots are growing, bamboos are not old yet” with names like Van Quyen, Cong Vinh, Quoc Vuong, Hoang Thinh… Besides, foreign players like Hector, Kevin, Fagan… also make Vinh stadium more exciting. Football is a form of entertainment, just like the music scene needs famous artists, the football field also needs stars, something that SLNA is lacking.

Except for the “swallow” Phi Son, who occasionally has beautiful moves, it is rare for Nghe An audiences to witness good moves and beautiful passes. Tuan Tai, a young talent that many audiences are waiting for, is still sitting on the bench.

In the first 7 matches of the season, the home team only had 2 wins (SHB.Da Nang, HAGL) and 5 draws and losses, making the audience no longer interested in coming to the stadium. Without their favorite idols and stars, the predicted results of the matches range from draws to losses, the foreign players are clumsy... causing the most crowded match to only have 8 thousand spectators.

Remember, in the past, Vinh Stadium with a capacity of 20,000 people was often overloaded, so we know that there was a large number of "sad customers, customers who left".

Just recently, CEO Ho Van Chiem wished that "if only Vinh Stadium could hold 100,000 spectators", but now he has to sit and sign a pile of invitations to schools inviting spectators to the stadium to make the atmosphere less empty. An SLNA player (who asked not to be named) confided: "We are having to play in such a cold atmosphere, it's hard to be good, bro!"

Tuan Tai - the hope of Nghe An football. Photo: DN Tuong quan

First of all, it must be said that the decreasing number of spectators is a common “disease” of Vietnamese football. In V.League 2016, there were only over 1.1 million spectators coming to watch 182 matches, an average of 6,307 people/match, about 1,400 people/match lower than 2 years ago.

SLNA has “dropped in rank” from the top 3 stadiums with the highest average number of spectators to 7th out of 14 and is expected to be surpassed by B.Binh Duong and S.Khanh Hoa when V-League 2017 returns.

Many SLNA players will secretly envy their colleagues SHB.Da Nang, Hai Phong and FLC. Thanh Hoa when they often play on a field with about 10,000 spectators. But perhaps, they also feel "less miserable" when Quang Tinh and his teammates XSKT. Can Tho have to play with only over 1,000 spectators. Long An players, at the bottom of the rankings, are also having to play in the cold atmosphere of Tan An Stadium.

The second leg of V-League 2017 is only wrapped up in the championship race because the relegation is almost decided. According to the assessment, the later the tournament, the more meaningless matches arise, the less the audience wants to go to the stadium.

Many match organizers have confirmed that the number of spectators attending the stadium this season will hardly exceed 4,500 people/match, and Vinh Stadium is expected to continue to be empty. How to “cut losses”, the question is for General Director Nguyen Hong Thanh, the coaching staff and SLNA players?

N@T