Hong Kong will never be a globally relevant sporting city if it treats sport with such wilful disregard

When it comes to tournaments and competitions that register beyond the immediate confines of the region, Hong Kong has little to offer
The city is rushing headlong into sporting irrelevance, with a newly handicapped golf course – and a government that doesn’t seem to care

Josh Ball

Published: 10:30am, 1 Jul, 2023

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The news that the government intends to take back control of a section of Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling, without any clear plan of what to do next, shouldn’t come as a surprise to those of us who have been paying attention to its approach to sports in general.

Giving the Leisure and Cultural Services Department responsibility for a site it has no clue how to manage would be surprising, if it were not entirely in keeping with the city’s ambivalent attitude towards major sporting events.

The new Kai Tak Sports Park is a perfect case in point: a 50,000-seat white elephant waiting-to-happen. With the stadium expected to be fully ready by 2025, all we know right now is that the new retail hall will have enough space for 200 businesses, providing “tourists and citizens with one-stop sports and leisure, entertainment, dining and shopping experiences”.

Because more shopping is exactly what’s needed in a city where you can’t swing a cat without hitting a Gucci or Tiffany outlet.

A white elephant waiting to happen? The Kai Tak Sports Park under construction last year. Photo: Dickson Lee

When it comes to sporting events, concerts, or any plans for filling the stadium, there is silence. Asked by the Post, the LCSD said it was not its responsibility, while Kai Tak officials have refused to answer any questions on at least five separate occasions.

Hong Kong is not so much sleepwalking into irrelevance as a venue for elite sport, but rushing headlong into its warm embrace and falling down with it in a poppy field.

Officials may point to the National Games in 2025, with the city expected to host multiple events – including, somewhat ironically, the golf. But this is the biggest occasion, apart from the Sevens, the city has on its books for the next couple of years. And the hard truth is that outside China, the National Games are not a marquee event.

And therein lies the problem. While the city has hosted Asian championships in squash, sailing, triathlon and other sports, when it comes to ones that register beyond the immediate confines of the region, Hong Kong has little to offer. It has the Sevens, two golf tournaments, two tennis tournaments, and at a stretch, a marathon.

What next for the controversial plan to build housing on a Hong Kong golf course?

Of these, it is in serious danger of losing the golf along with the only course able to host an elite event, something those in government seem to neither know nor care about.

The Fanling club’s fate is bound to cause arguments. Depending on your point of view it is either a playground for a rich elite indifferent to the housing woes of the city’s downtrodden, or a historic venue which has hosted high-level golf tournaments for decades, attracting hundreds of millions of dollars through sponsorship and tourism.

Those that would build on it point to the relatively small area being taken back in comparison to the 46 holes that would remain, while wilfully ignoring the essential role the eight holes eyed for development play in hosting major events.

Then there is the marathon – with its vastly inflated numbers courtesy of the tens of thousands who trot around the 10km and 5km courses – which has nowhere near the prestige of top races such as those held in London, Tokyo or New York.

Fans celebrate at the Hong Kong Sevens in April. The rugby tournament is, by any measure, the crown jewel in Hong Kong’s sporting calendar. Photo: Sam Tsang

The Sevens is, by any measure, the crown jewel – the tournament all the participating countries want to win, and all the supporters want to visit. It is an iconic event famous the world over that generates hundreds of millions of dollars for the economy.

But it is an exception, as is the return of men’s and women’s elite tennis, for which those responsible should be celebrated.

Contrast this with Singapore, which alongside squash, badminton, triathlon and a Sevens, has Formula One, European Tour and LIV Golf, and multiple courses on which to host them, Sail GP, and some of the biggest clubs from the English Premier League, Bundesliga and Serie A descending on it for a festival of football this summer.

Comparisons with the city state can seem trite, and predictably will be dismissed by those in power as media hype, or worse just as a way to elicit clicks online, but in this instance they are not only legitimate but entirely inevitable.

A practice session on the Marina Bay Street Circuit at last year’s Singapore Formula One Grand Prix. Hong Kong has far fewer sporting offerings than its rival Asian financial hub. Photo: EPA-EFE

Singapore may be closing its only racecourse, but it has more sport than Hong Kong can even dream about at the moment.

Even Indonesia, with its rundown stadiums, rampant football hooliganism and questionable safety standards, has been deemed worthy of hosting the Fifa Under-17 World Cup, months after being stripped of the Under-20 version.

It would be different if Hong Kong had little else to offer, but this is a gateway to the East and a city with a tradition few can match – ideally suited to attracting the world’s top sporting talent, but that seemingly has little appetite for it.

Which is strange, given the amount of money it throws at sport, even if there is a lack of oversight into where it goes. The Hong Kong Sports Institute gets HK$700 million (US$89 million) a year and its elite athletes have received some HK$13 billion over the past decade for returns that – Cheung Ka-long and Siobhan Haughey aside – are still a work in progress, to put it gently.

Irrelevance as a sporting and entertainment destination – there’s a reason Coldplay, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé skipped Hong Kong but the Backstreet Boys did not – can quickly lead to becoming a backwater

And while other governments have development pathways for young athletes, Hong Kong still subsidises a 35-year-old gymnast living on past glories while her replacement is a 16-year-old Australian who was never coached in the city.

Still, if funding is an issue there should be more than enough corporate support available. As Cathay Pacific and HSBC back the Sevens, Standard Chartered helps bring Liverpool to Singapore, AIA sponsors Tottenham and 3 Mobile is no stranger to the game.

If governing bodies can follow the example set by rugby and tennis, and the LCSD and Kai Tak can take some responsibility, there is no reason the eyes of the world can’t be turned on Hong Kong for something other than money or negativity.

And yet, maybe the truth is that Hong Kong cares little for the excitement of athletes performing at their best, or the global relevance that brings.

Hong Kong’s lame attempts to attract tourists and talent smack of desperation

As a finance centre, the city cannot be described by anyone as irrelevant, but that isn’t enough these days. Irrelevance as a sporting and entertainment destination – there’s a reason Coldplay, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé skipped Hong Kong but the Backstreet Boys did not – can quickly lead to becoming a backwater.

It may be that the government is happy for Kai Tak to sit empty for 51 weeks of the year, in which case it should turn over all its land to the developers, focus on generating more profits and free us all from these illusions of truly being a sporting city.

Josh Ball is the Post’s Sports News Editor