The debut of the World Games Series in Hong Kong on Friday will be a stepping stone for the city to host other large-scale, multi-sport events, observers have said.
The organising committee said it had sold or given away more than 13,000 tickets as of Wednesday for the three-day sporting event and its accompanying carnival. Competitions for wushu, cheerleading and roller sports will be held.
The competitions, to be held on Saturday and Sunday, will see athletes compete for a chance to qualify for the 2025 World Games in Chengdu, in sports that were not included in the Olympics.
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“In the future, we hope to host more large-scale competitions, but Hong Kong would need to warm up,” lawmaker Vincent Cheng Wing-shun said.
“When we are hosting these qualifying events, we are warming ourselves up by ensuring our supporting measures are well implemented.”
Cheng, who is also a vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Sports Institute, said he hoped the city could attract more competitions and qualifiers so that it could gain more experience in hosting these events.
The lawmaker pointed out that most of the city’s past large-scale sporting events were based on one sport.
The city already hosts several annual large-scale sporting events, which include the Hong Kong Sevens and the Hong Kong Tennis Open.
Cheng argued the city must understand how to use its existing and coming venues to serve not only local residents but to attract international sporting events as well.
The World Games Series will be held at the Go Park Sai Sha, an integrated sports and commercial complex developed by Sun Hung Kai Properties that features several sports venues and facilities.
Hong Kong will also soon see the opening of its new 50,000-seat main stadium at Kai Tak Sports Park, which also features a public sports ground and an indoor sports centre.
Fellow legislator Adrian Pedro Ho King-hong echoed Cheng’s view that the World Games Series would help the city build up its capability to host large-scale, multi-sport events, noting the coordination required was “completely different” compared with single sport competitions.
“It is different in that you need to cooperate and liaise with various international bodies. You would also have athletes from diverse countries, competing in multiple venues,” he said. “It is hard to hold a competition like this.”
Ho added that hosting the inaugural event would also help to raise the city’s profile among the international community in terms of sporting events, which he believes would lead to more opportunities further down the road.
“The development of sports and sports tourism in Hong Kong is built up over a lot of different small things,” he said. “It is built with many different building blocks and this is a very important one.
“Once we have this event, we will have others. Our hope for each event is that we can make them larger-scale.”
But the lawmaker cautioned against putting too high an expectation on the games, noting that the main goal for hosting it was to organise more such sporting events in the future, so the city could benefit in the long run.
Sports sector lawmaker Kenneth Fok Kai-kong said that unlike most competitions in Hong Kong, the World Games Series would be held in a private venue. He added that this was a new approach in hosting such events in the city and could serve as a model for future ones.
Wong Po-kee, chairman of the World Games Series Hong Kong local organising committee, said it had sold or given out 13,129 tickets for the carnival and competitions as of Wednesday.
“We are happy that over 10,000 people are interested in attending our event,” he said.
Asked whether there would be any further World Games Series events in Hong Kong in the future, Wong noted organisers would like to explore the possibility after the end of the current round of qualifiers.
In a reply to the Post, a spokesman for the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau said the World Games Series in Hong Kong was an important event leading up to the World Games 2025 in Chengdu.
“Hong Kong is delighted to be selected as the host city for the inaugural leg of the .. series and welcomes the staging of various international sports events in our city,” he said.
The spokesman noted that with the support from authorities, the city had played host to a large number of major international sporting events. He expected that more than 20 major international sporting events would be supported by the government’s “M” mark system in 2024.
He added that the completion of Kai Tak Sports Park would also provide modern and multipurpose sports and recreational facilities, as well as supply a venue for mega sporting events in the city.
More from South China Morning Post:
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- Hong Kong needs office overseeing planning for mega events, think tank says
- Hong Kong must up its game on ‘mega events’, sports sector lawmaker says
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