Hanoi’s proud My Dinh stadium now getting ugly

Constructions of services and facilities that have nothing to do with sports have mushroomed inside the My Dinh national sports complex in Hanoi over the last two years, completely deforming the country’s most modern sporting venue.

The 247-hectare complex broke ground in 2001 to prepare for the 2003 SEA Games in Hanoi. It includes the US$53-million My Dinh Stadium with 40,000 seats, and the $11.48-million aquatic sport center.

In 2011, My Dinh received the go-ahead from the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism to cooperate with the business sector to exploit the facilities to increase revenues for the venue.

A wave of commercial projects sprang up, such as a massage parlor, café, hotels, restaurants, and even a circus, messing up the complex.

Supermarket, café, skate club, auto center…

The O2 café, whose front is designed as a discothèque, now obstructs the My Dinh Stadium’s sector B, while the yard in front of My Dinh Square is leased to a circus troupe. A cuisine complex meanwhile stands at the end of the pitch, with a banner that reads “Old Town Cuisine Section.”

Next to the stadium is the two-story luxury supermarket Dong Duong Home Interior, which is under construction.

Similarly at the aquatic sports center opposite the stadium, there are a restaurant, a children playground, a skate club, an automobile service center, and a cooking gas warehouse. A construction advertised as ‘the aquatic world’ is being completed at the venue.

The aquatic sports center is also functioning as a school since it has been leased to the Newton International School, which now teaches hundreds of students from primary to high school inside the center’s hall.

More to come

While the My Dinh complex is already full of non-sport facilities, its operator has plans to put up more similar constructions at the venue in the years to come.

Accordingly, a new 10,000-seat stadium and three tennis courts will be constructed at My Dinh Complex, together with a five-star sport hotel, and a service – trade center.

There will also be a 20-story office building, and a golf academy with a four-hectare course.

It is hard to imagine how the sports complex looks if the plan is approved.