A 2 AM World Cup Final, and the All-Night Business of Ho Chi Minh City
Overtime bonuses, per-table surcharges and an 89,000-dong ticket combo — how Vietnam's food and drink scene turned a 2 AM World Cup final into a full night of business.
[A 2 AM World Cup Final, and the All-Night Business of Ho Chi Minh City]
At seven in the evening, a cafe owner in Ho Chi Minh City switched on his projector. Kickoff — Argentina versus Spain in the World Cup final — was still seven hours away, at 2 AM. But more than 200 chairs were already lined up in his shop, waiting for customers to come claim a seat.
He wasn't guessing. Some fans had booked tables nearly a week in advance just to get a spot facing the screen, and plenty decided to stay up through the night even though Monday morning meant work as usual. Saigon Riverside Park hosted a 24-hour fan festival, stacking sports, food and live music from the previous morning all the way to kickoff.
For the city's restaurants, a final in the middle of the night is a business plan with clear numbers attached. A Japanese-style grill on Nguyễn Trãi Street normally closes at 1 AM; on final night it stayed open until the last whistle and the last customer. It expected around 50 percent more guests than usual, and the kitchen simply doubled its ingredient orders.
Overtime has a going rate too. One restaurant offered staff a 300,000-dong bonus to work through the night, and added a 100,000-dong surcharge per table — all of it passed on to the employees on shift. Cafes are far cheaper, charging a few thousand to some fifteen thousand dong per person.
The chains joined in as well. Highlands Coffee announced its first overnight opening in years at selected stores in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang — entry required an 89,000-dong "final combo" of a large drink, a croissant and a bottle of water. The combo was, in effect, the ticket. KATINAT, which targets younger customers, cut 40 percent off its World Cup merchandise to celebrate Argentina reaching the final. Independent cafes simply posted 24-hour notices and put instant noodles and fries on the menu to carry customers through the small hours.
The most expensive way to watch was at a bar, especially in Hanoi, where many cafes stop seating customers after 11 PM and watching at home risks waking the neighbors. Some office workers booked out bar tables with friends instead — one group of five spent around 4 million dong on food and drinks in a single night. In Ho Chi Minh City, one bar scheduled its staff straight through to dawn, switching back into cafe mode at 5 AM to serve people heading to work straight from the match.
The shops were counting one night's takings; a much bigger sum was paid out before the tournament even began. State broadcaster VTV announced in April that it had secured exclusive Vietnamese media rights to this World Cup, making it the only party able to license public screenings in restaurants and fan zones. The contract value was never disclosed, but observers estimate it could not be lower than the roughly USD 15 million paid for the 2022 edition — twenty years ago, the price was just USD 2.1 million. That money is a bet on national attention, and the attention is real: since opening day, Vietnamese searches about the World Cup have run more than fifteen times higher than in the month before the tournament.
After sunrise, the city goes back to an ordinary Monday, and the people who stayed up head straight to work. The next time an entire city pulls an all-nighter for a football match may well be four years from now.
