Hong Kong welcomes public into new sporting home as Kai Tak Stadium opens doors

Thousands of people filed into Kai Tak Stadium on Sunday for the finals of a university rugby sevens tournament, the first real test of Hong Kong’s new 50,000-seat venue.

Gates opened at 10am, and organisers said 4,300 people had passed through within the first hour. In total, some 10,000 spectators were expected to have attended the event, with 17,5oo tickets distributed to rugby clubs, youth groups and other local organisations.

This – the University Sports Federation of Hong Kong, China’s sevens tournament finals – was the largest of the test events to have been held at the new Kai Tak Sports Park (KTSP) so far.

Its numbers still paled compared with those expected for the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens in March and the arrival of British band Coldplay in April, let alone the National Games in November, but they were enough to give officials and public alike a taste of what will follow.

There was almost universal approval from those who did attend, with John, a 45-year-old who works in the banking sector, saying it was “hard not to be impressed”.