Where to watch American football in HCMC

The problem with watching American football here, college and pro, is the times of day in Vietnam that the games are shown. Games don't start until around midnight here, and although they continue into the next morning, there are no bars open early in the morning that would have more than one person interested in watching a game.

The other issue is satellite access. There are very few, if any, satellite systems available in Vietnam that receive any channels that show the games, particularly college games. The NFL (pro league) is very popular in Cambodia, and there are systems there that can access many of those games. I don't know if any of those systems are available in Vietnam.

Occasionally, the local sports channels show delayed replays of some games the following day. I've seen them on at the bars I frequent - No. 5 Bar on Pastuer Street, and Phatty's restaurant/bar on Ton That Thiep Street in Q1. It is very hit or miss, and not likely to be the team your friend wants to watch.

There has been another thread regarding watching American football on EB started by Wild_1 a few weeks ago. Check that for additional info.

Hieumi,

Being able to enjoy American football in Vietnam is a very exclusive priviledge.  Only a few can access: only the non-SEC guys and no-Stanford dude are allowed.  You should check with your friend to see who he is and which is his team.  God Forbid...  He better not be any of the above, or an "O" or a "bRuin"...  Then, we will think about it. 

I given up trying to watch it live especially trying to watch online since my connection speed is too slow to stream it properly. I've just gone on ESPN.com, sports forums, and chatting on facebook with my fellow football friends to get my NFL fix.

Satellite dish use requires a permit from the Communications Ministry and they permit reception of dishes to receive VN television programming where cable TV is not available.

A few, exceptional, permits are granted to receive other programming.

And to receive signals in HCMC requires large dishes, often 2 metre diameter, which sort of hard to disguise.

Best non-VN satellite reception is along the Cambodian border (sat TV is very legal in Cambodia). With the directional antennae they can fit to satellites these days, profiling reception areas is extremely accurate.

Best to look for a InterNet source. Scandinavian countries are just being offered streaming US TV and with a VPN terminating in the area viewing might be possible.

My friend is a lawyer from MS, he's a big fan of Ole Miss team. Thanks for your attention.

Wild_1 wrote:

Hieumi,

Being able to enjoy American football in Vietnam is a very exclusive priviledge.  Only a few can access: only the non-SEC guys and no-Stanford dude are allowed.  You should check with your friend to see who he is and which is his team.  God Forbid...  He better not be any of the above, or an "O" or a "bRuin"...  Then, we will think about it. 

Yes, internet in Vietnam has very poor quality. Some suggest us to use fiber internet but we worry if the quality isn't as good as we expect. And also the charge is very high.

Do you have any specific suggestion, please ?

Jaitch wrote:

Satellite dish use requires a permit from the Communications Ministry and they permit reception of dishes to receive VN television programming where cable TV is not available.

A few, exceptional, permits are granted to receive other programming.

And to receive signals in HCMC requires large dishes, often 2 metre diameter, which sort of hard to disguise.

Best non-VN satellite reception is along the Cambodian border (sat TV is very legal in Cambodia). With the directional antennae they can fit to satellites these days, profiling reception areas is extremely accurate.

Best to look for a InterNet source. Scandinavian countries are just being offered streaming US TV and with a VPN terminating in the area viewing might be possible.

Hieu,
Go to Hogs Breath sports bar, located on the ground level of the new Bitexco Tower in district 1. Talk to the owner/manager there and ask if he has any options for watching American football. As I said before, the main issue may be with times to watch, but if enough people are interested, it may make a difference. I know from experience that it's hard to get the wait-staff to show up early in the morning for bar openings, which is why the bars that do open, only open for big events, such as the NFL Super Bowl.

Hieumi wrote:

Yes, internet in Vietnam has very poor quality. Some suggest us to use fiber internet but we worry if the quality isn't as good as we expect. And also the charge is very high.

Do you have any specific suggestion, please ?

The best ADSL connections and fiber-optic connections will be good enough. But access to them depends on where in HCMC you are located. It also depends on how much you are willing to pay every month.

At this time, even the best connections are not as good as they are supposed to be, because there is a problem with Vietnam's connection to one of the undersea telecom cables connecting USA to Asia. I'm told they are working on it, and was supposed to already be repaired by this time, but they are having difficulty locating the problem.

Hieumi, tell your friend to go to Boston Sports Bar on Bui Vien. They are open 24 hours/7 days a week. They pretty much have all the games showing. Yesterday they had 5 different games at the same time. I'm a football junkie, and this is a bad time of the year for me as I usually pull nighters every Sunday night to watch the games.

That is for the NFL though. Not sure if he likes NFL as well or just college..

JVo,

For real?  They should have the college games there too, right?  I just want to catch that USC vs Stanford game.  Are you going to be there this weekend?  This sounds like a cool little place.

Howie,

I would be shocked if they didn't have it. The game is 730 PM EST Sat night, so 630 AM Sunday morning here right? Are you coming up to Saigon this weekend? Not sure if I'll be up at the time as I try to save myself for Sunday night/Monday morning for the NFL games. BTW for college I'm a big Fighting Irish fan, but they have not given me much to cheer about since the Rick Mirer/Jerome Bettis days...

I can see if they know ahead of time whether or not they will have it so that you don't come there just to be disappointed. What channel is the game on back home, CBS, NBC?

Jerry

Jerry,

It will be on Fox.  Man, I would love to go there and join you guys, even if you are the fan of the enemy: 

I'm a big Fighting Irish fan

Yeah, it would be really cool if you can check with them ahead of time.

See Howie... I told you - if you were better-looking, you would have gotten this answer several weeks ago!

Jerry, good on you man! Haven't seen you here in a while. I don't go over to the Pham Ngu Lao area very often at night, but now that you've told us about Bostons, I might have to check it out.

Howie, if they don't have it, you know we'll try to work out plan B.

Saigonmonkey wrote:

See Howie... I told you - if you were better-looking, you would have gotten this answer several weeks ago!

Yeah, what is up with that, Jerry? 

Saigonmonkey, but if they have the game, let's head over there this Sunday? 

Anatta, you better be there too, man!

Howie, I would have told you a long time ago, but I was under the impression you lived in Can Tho..

SaigonMonkey - How's it going? I don't blame you for not going to the Pham Ngu Lao area. There's not much going on there. I'm only there because the studio I rent for the weekends is behind the back packing area, and like I mentioned earlier I can watch some sports there.

My good friend is a manager at a really nice sports bar in D1. It's called RED. Really nice setup. They recently redesigned everything: modern decor, and really nice big TV's, but unfortunately I don't think they open until 830 am. Otherwise I would just tell you guys to go there there...

JVo
Good info. I'll try to be there if they have it. Otherwise, it is a bummer to be there that early with nothing to show for.

Anatta,

Didn't you see that Saigonmonkey and I already have our contingency plan in place? 

Howie, if they don't have it, you know we'll try to work out plan B.

Jerry,

Is your manager friend an American or a Viet Kieu?  Common Jerry, go over there and "make him an offer that he cannot refuse" so we all can enjoy the games this Sunday.

There are quite a few good ones on tab, at around the same time as the USC vs Stanford game:  there is Florida vs Tennessee, Notre Dame (your guys) vs Michigan St. and Houston vs UCLA as well. 

So common, Jerry.  Go Jerry go!!! 

just go to vipbox.tv  and stream it yourself at home. Its free and what Bostons uses to watch the games also. Plus the owner is an A%$ at Bostons. I used to frequent there back in the day but he is just so nasty to his Vn employees I stopped going there.

Just tried it.

Got several spam popups saying "DOWNLOAD NOW", "PLAY NOW", "WATCH NOW". X one out, then another pops up. Finally get to the screen where the stream is located, wait for the little spinning wheel for about 30 seconds, then get a message saying, "Stream is unavailable right now. Try again."

Maybe it's just me...

Howie, I will see if my friend will open early. He's usually happy to do it and has done so before. The only problem is I think he closes the bar Sat night and will be there pretty late. It never hurts to ask though.

I am excited about the ND-MS game but I do think we will lose. We haven't started 3-0 since the stone age, not sure if Sat is when we will break the drought.

SaigonMonkey, those feeds are a complete hit or miss (usually miss). Sometimes the audio is in different languages and is always getting shut down. Plus who wants to watch a big game on a laptop by yourself when you can be somewhere with your friends talking crap about each others teams? That's half the fun!

Jerry,

It would be great if we can all watch the games over at your friend's.  Work on him, bro.  Go Jerry, go!!!    If things work out, we might be there every Sunday morning...

Man, your Boys have a decent team this year.  But, they have one heck of a schedule, though.  Nonetheless, I hope you guys do well, until we play you.

Hey Howie, Boston Sports Pub will have the USC game on. You might just have to ask them to change channels if it's not already on. My buddy has to close the bar and will be there really late tonight so he can't open earlier than 8 am tomorrow morning, unfortunately.

Have fun if you guys go.

Jerry,

Have fun if you guys go.

What do you mean?  You are not going, bro?  Regardless, thanks though, Jerry.  I still hope that you can join us later on.

Anatta and I are going for sure. 

What about you, Saigonmonkey?  Are you going to be able to get up that early?  Common man, it's just an early morning exercise?

Hope you see all of you.
Howie

I'm gonna set my alarm, but we'll see. I'll be there tomorrow night at midnight to watch my Giants (NFL) so I might save my energy for that game.

Now I am confused.
I called the Boston Sports Bar, Bui Vien twice.
Both of the times, they confirmed that they are open 24 hrs/day and 6AM tomorrow is not a problem.

Now, Jerry tells us that it is open only from 8AM. Which version is correct, guys?
Are you talking about another bar here?

Anatta, sorry for the confusion. In an earlier post I mentioned that my friend is a manager of a really nice sports bar, much nicer than Boston and that I was gonna try and get him to open early for the game but he can't since he's closing the bar tonight and will be there really late.

Boston is open 24/7 365 days a year

Where is Boston Bar? I'm from Oregon currently in HCMC and the Ducks are playing at 10:30a here Sunday morning on ESPN! Or if you have any other suggestions of where it might show, love to know!!!

Rikee105 wrote:

Where is Boston Bar? I'm from Oregon currently in HCMC and the Ducks are playing at 10:30a here Sunday morning on ESPN! Or if you have any other suggestions of where it might show, love to know!!!

Did a quick google search

https://foursquare.com/v/boston-sport-b … a163a6c67a

Universal Bar, 90 Bui Vien, Pham Ngu Lao is open 24 hours and can show NFL and College Football ...

I am in Ho Chi Minh City looking to watch American NFL football. Is there any place in the city to watch NFL???

Hi Hieumi,

I think your friend could watch American Football (AF) on cable TV through Fox Sport; however, he should have advance schedule as most of the time is for English football, tennis, UFC and others.