The Hong Kong Government has announced that Kai Tak Stadium will officially open on March 1, following the successful staging of the latest test event at the cornerstone of the Kai Tak Sports Park development.
Kai Tak Stadium staged its first test event on January 5 as over 10,000 people attended a university rugby sevens tournament. Another large-scale stress test was held yesterday (Tuesday), with Kai Tak Stadium operating at its 50,000 capacity for a Hong Kong Premier League U22 football match between Kitchee and North District.
The exercise, which was attended by civil servants, government employees and members of community groups, was conducted to assess the operational readiness of Kai Tak Stadium and its surrounding facilities for sports events with maximum attendance, with a view to ensuring full preparedness for the official commissioning of the Sports Park.
Similar to the previous large-scale stress tests, the drill was co-ordinated by the Exercise Team of the Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) and covered five major testing and evaluation areas; namely security screening and ticket checks, venue signage and designated seating arrangements, inter-agency co-ordination in response to emergencies, various crowd management measures, and passenger flow management by public transport operators.
The stadium’s retractable roof was opened for the first time during the stress test, aligning the testing time and mode more closely to the actual conditions of sports events. The Government said the volume of noise during the test was found to be within the acceptable sound levels.
Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, Rosanna Law Shuk-pui, disclosed the official opening date as officials reviewed Tuesday’s trial. “After the many drills we have conducted, we are satisfied with the outcome,” she said, according to the South China Morning Post.
“We have also made a number of improvements and adjustments. To this day, we are highly confident that the stadium is able to operate smoothly and will officially open on March 1. We will announce the details of the opening later.”
Kai Tak Stadium’s first major event is currently scheduled to be Hong Kong’s leg of World Rugby’s SVNS series from March 28-30. British band Coldplay will also stage four concerts at the stadium from April 8-12.
The wider Sports Park complex also includes the 10,000-capacity Kai Tak Arena and the 5,000-capacity Youth Sports Ground.
