Weather hampers Toon ticket sales
Organisers of tomorrow night's exhibition match featuring English Premiership side Newcastle United are still confident of packing the stadium despite Tropical Storm Kompasu and poor ticket sales threatening to make the game a non-event.
Newcastle take on Kitchee at Hong Kong Stadium with organisers at the mercy of the inclement weather, which could put a dampener on ticket sales if rain and wind continue to lash the SAR.
Kitchee chief executive Ken Ng-kin admitted that ticket sales had not been good with only around 6,000 sold so far, but he was confident more spectators would turn out on match night.
'We've been inundated for interviews and radio shows. The interest is there,' said Ng. 'My report card from the sports fans will be complete on Sunday when we find out just how many people will turn out for the game. We have done everything we can. We hope the fans react. It seems we are getting a lot of requests [for interviews].
'If that is any indication, there well may be a significant number of people coming on the day. I am getting quite a number of calls for tickets this morning so that's a good indication.' Ng was still worried that Typhoon Kompasu would still leave a trail of rain for several days to come and he was hoping the storm would quickly dissipate.
'We are a bit worried about the practice session on Saturday morning [at Hong Kong Stadium]. If it [Typhoon Kompasu] is 400km away then it will be okay. We want the rain belt to move off, because as you know with every storm it is how wide the cloud area is.
Typhoon Kompasu has wreaked havoc with Newcastle's dinner plans last night at the Aberdeen Marina Club. Everything was laid out to make the visitors feel at home with a spectacular tropical setting, but the typhoon scuppered plans to have the dinner outdoors.
'We had a marquee arranged outside the swimming pool but it didn't happen because of the typhoon. It would not be suitable if there is still a typhoon number eight,' laughed Ng, trying to inject humour on an otherwise bleak day.
'We did manage to have a training session [at Siu Sai Wan Stadium] and from what I understand, the session was slightly shortened. But it went ahead, which is good,' said Ng.
Newcastle United players and officials spent the whole day indoors, fascinated that Hong Kong had come to a complete standstill because of the typhoon.
