Hong Kong Sevens postponed for second straight year as city battles fourth wave of Covid-19

The 2021 Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens will be postponed from April until November, the Post understands. An official announcement will be made by governing body World Rugby on Thursday.

Originally slated for April 3-5, the decision comes as no surprise given Hong Kong is struggling to contain cluster outbreaks and untraceable infections in trying to combat its fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The writing was on the wall after the government had earlier this month cancelled its annual New Year and Lunar New Year fireworks display and parades scheduled for January and February. All sporting events in Hong Kong are either postponed or cancelled for the foreseeable future.

With many of its competing nations going through their own government-imposed travel and quarantine restrictions, it has become impossible for organisers to deliver the event’s large-scale logistical requirements.

The Union, in tandem with World Rugby which oversees the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, has agreed that a postponement to early November would be the most sensible solution.

They will be betting on a vaccine bringing some order to the world and countries opening up to travel. Studies have shown that more than half of the Sevens spectators come from overseas. The weather is also favourable at that time of the year.

Hong Kong Sevens ‘makes no commercial sense’ unless stadium half full

The Union is already reeling from this year’s Sevens postponement-turned-cancellation. It is desperate to stage the event which generates 95 per cent of its annual revenue.

In February, the Union had similarly postponed the city’s marquee sporting event from April to October. Then in June, World Rugby called off remaining tournaments of its 2019-20 Series season citing the pandemic, cancelling the Hong Kong, Langford, London, Paris and Singapore legs.

Where the Sevens fits into a new revised schedule for next year is unclear, but it could mean it stages the climax, as opposed to its original role as the Series’ opener.

It would have been one of the very few rugby sevens competitions leading into the also-postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, now rescheduled for July 23-August 8.

The postponement also allows World Rugby to perfect a Covid-19 bubble or protocol model that will have to be employed at Tokyo 2020, providing the Games go ahead. Many of the World Series teams will be competing in Tokyo.

The Hong Kong Sevens is estimated to bring nearly $400 million to the Hong Kong economy each year. In 2019, the Sevens raked in HK$116 million and HK$55 million in corporate box income and tickets, respectively.

The next Sevens will be the 45th iteration, with the event being held every year since 1976, even playing through Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2003. The deadly disease ripped through the city, killing 299 of the 1,755 people it infected.

On Wednesday, the Union also announced the postponement of its annual New Year’s Day Youth Tournament due to “ongoing Covid-19 social distancing restrictions”.