Asean Basketball League: Hong Kong Eastern eye more success in 2023 as they plan to join Chinese competition
- City’s only professional team hope to join Chinese Basketball Association by 2024 and use Kai Tak Sports Park as their home court
- To prove their readiness, Eastern are targeting a strong showing in the ABL – which they won at their first attempt in 2017 – when it returns in January
The club are understood to have been in contact with mainland Chinese authorities on several occasions to seek the necessary approvals. Sources with knowledge of the developments confirmed to the Post that progress had been made on all fronts.
Although a concrete time frame has yet to be agreed on for Eastern to start playing in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), the scheduled 2024 completion of the Kai Tak park, which could stage their matches, is viewed as essential to the plan.
The club want to use the park’s 10,000-capacity Indoor Sports Centre as their home court in the CBA. They currently use Queen Elizabeth Stadium (3,500 capacity) or Southern Stadium (2,000).
“Our hopes for developments are limitless,” Yau said. “The ABL is the best in Southeast Asia, so to be part of China’s premier division had long been our vision, and we had been doing a lot of preparation to realise our dream.
“We aim to do well in the upcoming ABL season, to prove the team [are competitive and] fulfil the requirements to join the CBA.”