Opinion | Left Field: Sell-out crowd for Baa-Baas match will send important message

This year rugby fans get the chance to witness two major events at Hong Kong Stadium - the Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens at the end of March and then, on June 1, the British and Irish Lions taking on the Barbarians.

This past week, the Lions vanguard arrived in Hong Kong led by head coach Warren Gatland on a scouting mission to check the facilities on offer for this landmark game - the Lions have played the Baa-Baas only once before in the storied history of both teams.

Gatland left happy with what he saw. He was impressed by the stadium, which hopefully will be packed to the rafters on June 1. It undoubtedly will be for the Sevens, which has been sold out for the past decade or more.

The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union has said more than 10,000 tickets have been sold for the Lions game so far, so there is still a long way to go before the 40,000-capacity stadium is filled.

For the Sevens, only 4,000 tickets are available for public sale and after years of struggling to get it right, the HKRFU has at last opted for a public ballot. For more than a month, people have been registering for this ballot, which will be drawn on February 7.

The online ballot is bound to be over-subscribed and, as happens every year, there will be many thousands who will be left disappointed. But at least this time they will not have had to waste their time and effort calling a hotline, which almost always fails to live up to that name.

However, as far as the Lions game is concerned, the HKRFU and organisers have stuck to the old ways and tickets are being sold through a ticketing company, whom you have to call to make your booking. In good old-fashioned Hong Kong style, there has been no rush to break down the doors with the public leaving it to the last minute - only the Sevens can guarantee a mad rush.