Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Stadium to hold first open-roof event drill on Tuesday

The retractable roof of Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Stadium will be open for the first time during a test run on Tuesday, with 50,000 people to pack out the venue for a football match to assess the resulting noise levels.

Officials coordinating the drills at Kai Tak Sports Park also defended the cost-effectiveness of spending millions of Hong Kong dollars on travel allowances for participating civil servants, saying on Sunday that the public should focus on the site’s “long-term benefits”.

An under-22 league match between Kitchee and North district will kick off at 8pm on Tuesday, with the stadium crowd to include 44,000 civil servants.

The government earlier said each civil servant taking part in a drill was entitled to a HK$100 (US$12.8) travel allowance, while other participants could receive HK$150.

Tens of thousands of people, including many government employees, have taken part in multiple drills over the past few months to test crowd control measures at the sports park.

Asked whether the move was cost-effective, Deputy Commissioner of Police Joe Chow Yat-ming said: “We need so many people to participate in the drill to ensure a smooth operation when the stadium officially opens … This will bring significant benefits to Hong Kong in the long run, not just the millions of Hong Kong dollars we are spending each time for now.”