Hong Kong’s new sports park at Kai Tak will not be a white elephant if lessons are learned

The Kai Tak Sports Park project, which spans 28 hectares, has been embroiled in controversy since its conception. Critics claim the facilities, especially the mega 50,000-seat main stadium, will be left empty most of the time because it may not host too many world-class sporting events. They also cite statistics in support of their claim that preference for physical activity among Hong Kong adults is low compared to their Asian counterparts in Japan, ­Singapore or South Korea.

Also, Hong Kong people do not dislike taking part in sports or physical activity. According to the health department, the proportion of adults engaged in ­intense physical activities such as jogging, football and swimming for at least 10 minutes per week rose from 33 per cent to 40 per cent between 2005 and 2014. This explains why we often see many people jogging in parks or sports grounds, and soccer pitches at Victoria Park or basketball courts at the Southorn Playground in Wan Chai are always full.

On the other hand, I understand the concerns of legislators that the HK$31.9 billion sports park may become a white elephant. A case in point is the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal, which admittedly looks like a ghost town, with few souls in sight during the daytime and half the retail shops closed all the time. In fact, there is nothing wrong with legislators, stakeholders or the public critically questioning the benefits and costs of any major policy or mega infrastructure project such as the Kai Tak Sports Park, as ultimately the costs are borne by taxpayers.