Best lesson from Thailand hosting of SEA Games

HOST country Thailand stormed through the 2025 Southeast Asian Games like a nation possessed. The result: 233 gold medals.

Second placer Indonesia managed just 91, third placer Vietnam only 87, followed by Malaysia with 57, and Singapore at 52. The Philippines finished sixth with 50 gold medals.

No matter what rivals say about the alleged biased officiating, alleged rigged rules, and other alleged schemes engineered by the host country to ensure victory, you have to recognize that there are only so many events to alter the final outcome.

So let’s give it to Thailand and get down and dirty for the next SEA Games in 2027, this time hosted by Malaysia, which will surely look to the Thai playbook to win top honors.

Still, Philippine sports authorities must learn one big thing from the Thais. With the same thoroughness they displayed in wreaking havoc on the opposition on the playing field, Thai authorities were just as quick to account for their expenses and earnings outside it.

Less than two days after the Games ended on December 20, Thai officials already have the figures of total expenses and projected profits — yes, profits — from hosting the SEA Games.

According to projections made by the governor of the Sports Authority of Thailand (SAT), Gongsak Yodmani — likely the equivalent of our Philippine Sports Commission chairman Patrick Gregorio — Thailand generated a total income of 14 billion baht, which translates to USD447.7 million.

According to a report from the office of the same governor, published in Siam Sport: “This figure is generated from 50 sports and the participation of over 12,000 athletes and officials. The event attracted nearly 400,000 spectators, including athletes’ families, international fans and tourists. In addition, the Games created between 12,000 and 14,000 jobs across the construction, service, transportation and sports sectors.”

The report also said: “The revenue number exceeds the expectations of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports (MOTS) by 2.5 times. It is more than six times the event’s operating budget of 2.055 billion baht ($63.5 million), which was approved by the cabinet in June for both the SEA Games and the upcoming Para Games.

“The $63.5 million (P3.7 billion) budget of Thailand is roughly half of the $131 million (P7.7 billion) spent by Cambodia for the 2023 Games. This difference is largely due to Thailand’s strategy of utilizing existing facilities, whereas Cambodia invested heavily in new infrastructure. Vietnam spent approximately $44 million (P2.6 billion) hosting the 31st SEA Games, but did not organize the Para Games. Neither Vietnam nor Cambodia disclosed specific revenue from the Games.”

Profits generated

Now, just try and absorb these figures. Contemplate the profits generated from this event and where it went. Thailand shows clearly that hosting an international sports event can make money, create jobs, improve infrastructure, and promote tourism.

Compare this to our recent forays at hosting international events.

In 2019, we hosted the 31st SEA Games with a budget of nearly P7 billion, the most egregious expense being the P50-million cauldron built in Pampanga’s New Clark City, which to this day remains unused after once being lit at the opening ceremony.

Then there’s the FIBA World Cup in 2023. The country hosted two of four groups involving 16 countries. The budget for this portion has been reported at P1.3 billion. But, brace for this: The hosting fee paid to FIBA, the world basketball federation, was at USD34 million, equivalent to P2 Billion in local currency.

Overall, the country must have spent about P5 billion.

Now, who can ignore the FIBV Men’s World Volleyball Championship held in October 2025, where the country hosted 32 nations in another mind-boggling waste of people’s money. The country spent P2 billion for a two-week affair that was generally conceded as an ego trip for Philippine National Volleyball Federation’s unlamented past president Tats Suzara.

The country won one game in that competition, played mostly before empty stadiums, prompting us to ask: Was this worth the expense? This event — for which the Philippines paid USD25 million (P1.5 billion) as hosting fee — was attacked in a Senate privilege speech for its atrocious ticket prices, with pricing at P20,000 for a ringside seat. Later reduced after massive protests, how does that even popularize the game?

It seems that our sports officials never learn.

The local federation was again chosen to host the FIVB Women’s Volleyball Championship for 2029, a last-minute bid made by the same unlamented president Suzara on his way out, leaving behind a future mess that’s expected cost us billions of pesos more.

What is truly maddening is that while Thailand, in a matter of hours, could produce figures of its expenses and other financial actions related to hosting the Games, in the Philippines, none of the three major sports events where the people’s money was extensively used had ever made an accounting.

Organizers have kept the books under wraps.

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Surely, the public wants to know how its money was spent. No such luck. The government’s guardian on this matter, the Commission on Audit, has not been heard to raise an issue on the funds.

Probably the most vexing is the 2019 SEA Games which — until now, six years on — has not accounted for the over P6 billion it spent.

You think the flood-control scam is stressful? You would be right. Now try contemplating the billions used on big international events we’ve hosted. No profits, negligible tourism bump, little transfer of sports technology, little improvement in infrastructure. You don’t think that’s stressful? You would be a different creature all together.

Our New Year’s Wish

We ask our sports officials to be transparent, sincere, dedicated, and not make sports a personal business. Let our athletes bloom, support them, let them go where their talent brings them, inspire them, let them know you have their backs. Hopefully, through them, you can make our nation proud and happy.

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