The government's inflexible policy on hiring out the Hong Kong Stadium puts the city at risk of being outpriced as an attractive venue to host future Bledisloe Cups and other autumn internationals, Hong Kong Rugby Football Union executive director Robert Knight said yesterday.
'It is now cheaper to host an international match in Dubai, Singapore or Tokyo,' Knight said after the HKRFU's plea for a reduction in hiring costs was turned down for the second time yesterday.
'Why would overseas unions want to come to Hong Kong if they can make more money in those places?' asked Knight, who revealed it costs nothing to hire stadiums in these three venues which are seen as Hong Kong's main rivals on the international rugby stage in Asia.
By contrast the current standard charge for hiring the 40,000-seater Hong Kong Stadium is HK$150,000 per day or 20 per cent of gate receipts.
This latter charge, which always applies to the HKRFU, has been reduced in the past couple of years on a sliding scale, saving the local governing body HK$1.4 million. But the union still says the charges are excessive and calls it a 'disgraceful punitive tax'.
A second attempt to try to explain why the HKRFU needed a reduction for the October 30 Bledisloe Cup between the All Blacks and the Wallabies was shot down by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department yesterday.
'This is the second time they turned us down,' Knight said. 'This time I went personally to explain why we need a reduction but we were knocked back again.'
