and Ho Chi Minh City both submitted their bid to host the games. While Ho Chi Minh City was the initial favored city, Hanoi is deemed to be the prioritized location due to its existing sporting facilities. This came after the Vietnamese Prime MinisterNguyễn Tấn Dũng ordered provinces and cities to not build new facilities for sporting events so as to cut costs, following the country's withdrawal from hosting 2018 Asian Games citing financial restraints.
Hanoi
According to Hanoi's proposal submitted to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the city would spend 1.4 trillion VND on preparing and organizing the 2-week Games running from late November to December. 97 billion VND is expected to be earned back from broadcast rights, advertisements, sponsors and other contributions.
Ho Chi Minh City
In December 2017, Ho Chi Minh City Municipal Standing Committee of the Communist Party approved of the city's hosting proposal. According to the proposal, the direct cost for hosting the Games in the city is estimated to be 7.48 trillion VND with 6.6 trillion VND to be spent on upgrading sports facilities and 904 billion VND on organizing costs. However, another 8.2 trillion VND is needed for the construction of Rach Chiec Sports Complex while an athletes' village will not be built. The Games would run for 12 days in mid August and see 30-36 sports being contested. The provinces of Đồng Nai and Bình Dương would also host a portion of Games.
Vietnam's SEA Games Organizing Committee was formed in April 2020 with authority to prepare, submit and execute plans to stage the Games.
Budget
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Vietnam's budget for the Games was cut. The total budget allocated by the Vietnamese government for this edition of SEA Games was estimated to be 1.6 trillion VND. 980.3 billion VND would be used for organizing costs while 602.3 billion VND would be allocated for upgrades and repairs to facilities managed by MCST. Provincial authorities are responsible for renovations to facilities under their management. Other than a new cycling track in Hòa Bình Province and a small tennis complex on Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Centre campus, no other sporting venue will be constructed for the edition. Organization revenue is expected to be 226.6 billion VND, with 136.6 billion VND coming from the delegates' accommodation fees and 65 billion VND from broadcast rights.
Venues
While Hanoi will be the main hub, several other surrounding provinces will also assist in hosting portions of the games. An athletes' village will not be built, athletes and officials will be housed in hotels near their competition venues. will host the opening and closing ceremonies along with men's football and athletics events will be rebuilt to host men's football matches will host a portion of men's football competitions
On 30 August 2019, Vietnam Olympic Committee launched a nationwide contest to find the official logo, mascot, slogan, and song for both 31st SEA Games and 2021 ASEAN Para Games. The contest ran until 30 October 2019. The top 3 in each category were intended to be featured on a ballot and Vietnamese nationals could then vote for the winning creation. On October 20, 2019, a mascot named after the canine character Vàng in Nam Cao's famous short storyLão Hạc was awarded People's Choice Award by the organizer. On October 26, 2019, the final top 3 mascots, selected by an internal panel, were announced. These mascots took inspirations from various Vietnamese animals: the endangered speciessaola, the mythical creature "con nghê", and tigers. These selected designs were met with overwhelmingly negative perception by the Vietnamese public. Many called the designs "dated", "aesthetically unpleasant" and "not representative of the Vietnamese spirit." The organizer later withdrew the announcement, stated that the designs were preliminary and they would undergo further adjustments. Consequently, the original date for announcing the winning submissions on October 31 failed to be realized. The reveal was then postponed to November 2019, and then again postponed indefinitely afterwards. As of July 2020, no announcement has been made.
