THE Hong Kong Football Association are being needlessly negative over the cost of hiring the new Hong Kong Stadium.
When the stadium's board of governors announced a hire charge of $150,000 a day, the association ran for cover, claiming they had been priced out of the market and that the game would never be the same again. Nonsense.
If association officials were to be a bit more positive, they would realise what the new stadium could do for the game.
They only have to look back to last Sunday to see the enthusiasm of the local supporters.
The occasion was the closing rounds of the President's Cup, a seven-a-side tournament for the First Division's 10 clubs, which gave fans a chance to see the new players - and the old players - in action before the start of the season proper.
The first quarter-final kicked off at 2.30 pm, but the queues had begun forming well over an hour before that. The attendance eventually climbed to 8,250 and the receipts - for a seven-a-side pre-season warm-up, remember - were a healthy $400,000.
