Snooker stars fail to draw crowd as Hong Kong exhibition event falls flat for second day running
- Queen Elizabeth Stadium venue sparsely populated as organisers defend ticket prices
- Source says cost of bringing Ronnie O’Sullivan and others to city in excess of HK$6.5 million
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The troubled Hong Kong Snooker All-Star Challenge again struggled to draw crowds on Tuesday, but organisers said they did not regret their aggressive pricing strategy.
Queen Elizabeth Stadium was visibly empty for a second day, with around only one-fifth of the 3,500 seats occupied. Those that did go watched local favourite Marco Fu Ka-chun beat Jack Lisowski 5-2 to keep the world No 18 from Cheltenham winless over the two days.
Gentle Hui, the executive president of organisers Beyond Borders Sports Academy, would not say if the overall attendance had met with initial expectations.
“I am more concerned if the spectators and the players were satisfied with their respective arrangements,” he said. “As for myself, there were too many considerations … … I did not really have any particular number of attendances [I need] in mind.”
While organisers also declined to reveal whether they were likely to reach their stated goal of making a profit, suggesting only there was “room for improvements”, a business insider told the Post it had cost in excess of HK$6.5 million (US$830,000) to bring the likes of Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and Mark Williams to Hong Kong.
“That was only the sum paid to the players, with all other costs excluded,” the source said.
More than 80 per cent of the tickets allocated for public sale cost between HK$2,380 and HK$3,380, after ticketing partner URBTIX revealed “just over half” of the seats were made available to the fans.
On Monday, disgruntled spectators were seen complaining about their obstructed views, and Legislative Council member Michael Tien Puk-sun condemned the organisers for their chaotic arrangements on the opening day.
While organisers defended the seating arrangements, a source it was not something that would have been allowed to happen at any World Snooker Tour-sanctioned events.
“Let’s just say, these things only happen at the amateur-level events, and even then, there were not as many seats [placed on the horizontal level as the table] as we see here,” the source said.
That view was echoed by Fu, who will play Jiang Jun of China in round one of the qualifying draw of the World Snooker Championship next month.
“You wouldn’t see that at a normal tournament,” he said. “But this is probably an exhibition, so maybe a little different, I guess.”
