Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Sports Park to showcase star-studded ‘grand’ opening ceremony on March 1
Hong Kong Free Press
Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Sports Park will showcase a “grand” opening ceremony featuring local and mainland Chinese athletes and celebrities on March 1, the city’s acting chief executive Eric Chan said.
The HK$30 billion park – the largest sporting infrastructure ever built in Hong Kong – will provide a “new experience” of sports, leisure, and consumption to residents and tourists, said Chan, who is also the city’s chief secretary, during a press conference on Tuesday.
“We will seize the opportunity and make the park Hong Kong’s new landmark,” he said in Cantonese.
The opening ceremony will be held in the park’s 50,000-seat main stadium and feature performances that demonstrate the history of Kai Tak and the development of sports in Hong Kong, Chan said.
He also said the event would be led by local and mainland performers “across the generations,” but stopped short of revealing any names.
The ceremony, jointly organised by the government and operator Kai Tak Sports Park Ltd, will begin at 6.30 pm on March 1 and last for around one-and-a-half hours.
Four local television broadcasters will air the show at 9.30pm, followed by a special programme by China’s state broadcaster CCTV, which will be streamed on Chinese social media platforms.
Since last October, the Hong Kong government, which footed the bill for the construction, has organised about 15 drills at three different facilities in the Kai Tak Sports Park, including an event in the main stadium last week with 50,000 people attending to test the facility’s full capacity.
During the Tuesday press conference, Chan called the drills “satisfactory,” saying that the park was ready for its scheduled opening.
Hong Kong Sevens, Coldplay scheduled
Construction of the 28-hectare sports park began in 2019. It consists of three main venues: the Kai Tak Stadium; the indoor Kai Tak Arena, with a seating capacity of up to 10,000; and the Kai Tak Youth Sports Ground with 5,000 seats.
Its HK$30 billion price tag has made the Kai Tak Sports Park one of the most expensive sporting facilities in the world.
The venue is set to host an international rugby competition, the Hong Kong Sevens, in its first month of opening, while the world-famous British rock band Coldplay is scheduled to perform four nights there in April.
Since last Thursday, Chief Executive John Lee has been visiting Harbin in mainland China. Chas has temporarily assumed his duties.
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