Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Sports Park plans are taking shape nicely – but will the government ever approve them?
The Home Affairs Bureau’s army of consultants have been busy spending HK$62.7 million of pre-construction funds – now how long will it take Legco to give them the cash they need to start building?
It can be difficult to get an audience with the Hong Kong government’s sporting powerbrokers.
The only time I’ve met Yeung Tak-keung, our first commissioner for sports who was appointed in January, was some 18,000 kilometres away as we watched Tiffany Chan Tsz-ching in action at the Rio Olympics golf course.
So it was refreshing that a senior official in Yeung’s department, the Home Affairs Bureau, briefed members of the sports industry this week on the latest state of plans for Kai Tak Sports Park at an event organised by the Business of Sport Network.
A quick recap if you’ve not been paying attention: 18 years after Kai Tak Airport closed, the prime harbourfront land on Kowloon Bay is still essentially waste ground.
Plans for the sports park, which will have a 50,000-seat stadium with retractable roof, indoor stadium and a public community sports ground were mooted many years ago, with little progress made since.
