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Got to go to the Asia Cup semi-final with Stefan and Rachel, courtesy of tickets from Tommo (and his friend Emma). Good game, Saudia Arabia ended up winning Japan 3-2 in an upset, lots of action, very fast paced, especially in the second half. There was a great bicycle kick for Japan’s second goal, something I’m sure will be shown on Sportscenter. I ended up missing the first two goals of the match, the first because Stefan was talking to me, the other my own silly fault, but the rest of the game proved good enough so I don’t regreat too much.

Before the match, I noticed the Yamaha stage, and as I was talking to Rachel about it, I came up with the 5 minute consultant. It’s the idea that in 5 minutes, you can see something, analyze it, and then make a great suggestion for change that’s reasonably doable but would have great impact on whatever it is you’re consulting for. You could then just go around taking quick projects, adding value.

So, 5MC #1: Yamha Motorbike Stage:

Analysis: The stage was the same one I’d see before during the VN/Qatar (pronounced Cutter, I did not know that) match - you have models next to all the bikes while a stage MC introduces all the bikes. Men gawk. The performance is very 1 way though, you gawk, it’s over, you go home. Not so great.

Suggestion: What if you chose 1 male from the audience for each bike you want to show/talk about, have him go up, sit on the bike, have the model sit behind him on the bike, and then take a Poloroid of him “riding” the bike with the model? You would then create the following scenarios of branding:

1. The guy who was always on the bike will have a direct memory and then photographic proof of the event, and having the girl ride behind him cements the “drive this Yamaha bike, have hot gf” image.
2. Anyone in the crowd who was not picked will wish he had been, and also remember “drive this Yamaha bike, have hot gf” because he actually sees a fellow person like him, just 5 minutes ago, a normal dude, 5 minutes later, on stage riding with a model.

Costs/Drawbacks: Yamaha has to pay for the Poloroids, but you could remove that if you wanted.

5MC #2: Asia Cup Audience

The crowd for the game was really poor. Maybe 5K or perhaps less, and I think there’s 40K capacity at the stadium. It’s terrible for such a big event as the Asia Cup, 2nd largest viewed football event in the world behind the World Cup, that there was no one in the stadium. I think the overall advertising and buzz around Hanoi for it was nothing. Yeah, I don’t watch TV (and definitely not Vietnamese TV) generally, and I did see some ads for it on buses, but I just didn’t feel like people here cared, other than when VN was playing. But when the Seagames were here in 2003, I definitely felt there was more buzz, and I didn’t even talk to many Vietnamese people back then. My tickets to the game were $10, which is expensive in VN, but not insanely so.

Before I got tickets to the game from Tommo, I had checked online (there’s no Ticketmaster here, so I don’t know for sure if the site was legit), and all the tickets to the game were sold old. Yet, when I got there, there were massive numbers of people selling tickets, and I could definitely tell there was not going to be a big crowd at the game. Japan is not that far away, and it’s a big event, yet Hanoi wasn’t able to pull the massive tourist draw from them at all. With the small audience, it’s embarassing for Hanoi because no one wants to see that in TV and it sets a bad example for pulling in other large events in the future, just shows Hanoi/VN sucks.

Suggestion: This is nothing big, but if you know no one is going to the game, at least doing some thing with charities to give away tickets. Pro sports in the US do this. Make sure the stadium is full, especially for a key event. Organize something where you’re getting 30,000 kids a chance to see high-quality soccer, something they may never see in VN again, in all honesty. Even if you have to give the tickets away to normal people, at least you’re getting revenue from concessions and parking, that’s better than having a 3/4 empty stadium, less revenue, and an embarassment to a TV audience. I was wondering if the players themselves felt like they were part of a low-grade competition.

Costs/Drawbacks: some cost in organization, but if you say, not as easy as it sounds, the government could just annouce everywhere “Free Upper Level tickets to the match!” And they do in fact have announcement vehicles that travel through every neighborhood every morning making announcements. (I’ve never understood one word though)

So, 5MC #1 and #2, and as Kyle would say, “Done and Done.” Easy, effective, and reasonable.

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I got to go to the Vietnam/Qatar game in Hanoi Thursday after Phong gave me his ticket. It’s the Asia Cup, a tournament VN hasn’t qualified for since 1960, and they actually didn’t qualify this time either. Hung was telling me they got an automatic bid because they’re one of the hosts, but they showed they belonged when they upset UAE (champs of the Middle East) a couple of days ago 2-0.

Vietnam tied Qatar 1-1. They scored in the first half on a weird goal…just didn’t seem right. Goalie had it (not a strong kick), and then suddenly he let it drop out of his hands. Goal scored, Vietnam crowd goes crazy, I get water dumped on me from above. Qatar was much stronger in the second half, and could have easily won 2-1 or 3-1. Up next for VN is Japan, a legit World Cup team, so even if it’s in Hanoi, VN is serious underdogs. They can lose tomorrow but with some luck still get into round 2, which in VN means it’s time for everyone to hit the streets to celebrate. Not sure if I’ll be going tomorrow, waiting for Hung to let me know if he’s down to go. If so, I’ll call up Aaron and we’ll see if we can get tickets from scalpers at the stadium.

Went to the game by myself, which why Phong gave up his ticket. It’s seriously far drive, past Cau Giay, it’s like going to the opposite end of Hanoi. The stadium itself is quite nice. I’d been there before, back when it was first finished for the SEAGames in 2003, courtesy of some tickets from Julie.

Some notes from the game:

-No real weapons check. There’s a metal detector, but they don’t really check you. Then again, guns are pretty much banned in the country, so that’s not really a fear. But that’s before the guy next to me (when I was sitting watching the game) pulled out some firecrackers. I guess this is when Lily (who learned from Gerard) would say, TIV (This is Vietnam).

-No bottles or cans allowed inside from outside, or even when you buy concessions. This is good I realized, when VN scored and I got pelted from random places in the stadium.

-It was very hot at the game, which for some idiotic reason, surprised me. When I first started to get to my seat, I thought, dammit it’s hot out here. Why wouldn’t it be, there are 40K fans super excited packed in a stadium in Hanoi, a hot and humid city, and there’s no wind, dumbass.

-VN loves the wave like it’s 1985, before I knew the wave was so cool. I actually do like the wave, but how I was seated (on the stairs because I couldn’t get to my seat, and also seating in some kind of beer/water solution) was not conducive to repeated jumping up and down.

-If you get to the game early (I got 10 mins late), you can probably sit in your assigned seat. If you get the game late, though, the way parking is, you’re probably going to get out of there quicker. A little bit different compared to normal US sports, where how soon you leave, and where you park, dictate how you get out. At the game, you have valet-ish parking (typical for VN), where you get your bike packed in with thousands of others. Imagine at night, how hard it is to get your bike out when it’s time to go then.

The gallery: (I have pics from the traffic afterwards, I’ll tell the story in a bit)

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