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HOBBY
teams from different countries - Singa-
pore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the
Philippines and Vietnam,” says Connor.
“The team comprises both Vietnamese
and foreign players.”
Each team is allowed two interna-
tional players, while three other players
have to come from South East Asia and
the remainder must be local.
The secret of Heat’s success is the
way they organise the games, making
them both sporting and entertainment
events in order to attract huge audienc-
es. “We have a sport company already
- we are now looking to build our sports
and entertainment business,” says Con-
nor. “We want to not only get into
professional sports, but also into sport
event organisation and entertainment.
That’s why we chose the Saigon Heat”.
Being a pioneer means facing a
lot of difficulties. For Connor Nguyen
and his partners, the biggest obstacle
that they faced was changing people’s
minds. “Trying to do something new in
Vietnam is very hard because the peo-
ple in general like to do things that they
are familiar with,” says Connor.
He explains it was difficult for the
basketball and sports community to un-
derstand his new idea and to change
the way things are done in order for the
project to be successful.
The company has to work with the
federation, the sponsors, and differ-
ent companies that help organise the
events. “We always ran into comments
like ‘You can’t do that in Vietnam’ or ‘It is
not the way for things to be done in Vi-
etnam’,” Connor explains. “So, we need
to have very clear vision and a lot of
determination to continue to do things
according to our own vision.”
Another obstacle has been a lack
of experience in international games.
In previous years, whenever Vietnam
competed against basketball teams
from other countries, Vietnam usually
lost about 40 points or more. “In our
first year, there were eight teams and
we finished in sixth place. We had some
success and stared to win”.
Despite the difficulties, Saigon Heat
is improving through its games and prov-
ing its place in the league. At all of their
games the audience is animated and rau-
cous. Connor says that other teams are
looking at how Heat organises the events
in order to try and emulate their success
The secret of Heat’s success
is the way they organise the
games, making them both sporting
and entertainment events