Government celebrates success of Kai Tak Sports Park

Mark O'Neill May 31, 2026 20:57

The Hong Kong government is celebrating the success of the Kai Tak Sports Park which opened in March last year – nearly 600,000 people have attended major sports events there.

In a written reply in LegCo on May 27, Miss Rosanna Law, Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism, wrote:

“Since its official commissioning in March last year, the Kai Tak Sports Park (KTSP) has successfully hosted numerous mega events and its promising achievements in advancing sports development and mega-event economy have been evident to all.

“The Kai Tak Stadium, in merely nine months after its opening, achieved the third-highest ticket sales and the fifth-largest gross revenue among major global venues in 2025. It was also ranked eighth globally and first in Asia out of 28 shortlisted venues in the Stadium of the Year 2025 awards organised by StadiumDB.com, an authoritative international stadium database,” she wrote.

In its first 13 months, it hosted 19 major rugby and soccer matches, including two editions of the Hong Kong Sevens. They attracted a cumulative attendance of over 583,000 people. A four-day Coldplay run attracted more than 200,000 spectators.

In March this year, TIME magazine named the park as one of the World’s Greatest Places of 2026, the only Hong Kong attraction on the list.

“With a fully soundproof and retractable roof, adaptable pitch, in-seat cooling, and sweeping harbor views from the lively South Terrace, the stadium is a technological standout,” the magazine said.

“Beyond that, the 69-acre park features a 10,000-seat arena, youth sports ground, tennis and beach volleyball courts, a track, a playground, an outdoor theatre, large-scale public art displays, and pop-up food markets. A packed events calendar and 700,000 sq. ft. of retail space — adding cafés, a 40-lane bowling alley, and a climbing wall — round out the district. The momentum continues with Go Park Sai Sha, a 1.3 million-sq.-ft. mixed-use community hub near Sai Kung designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. With golf, tennis, roller skating, pickleball, and concerts, it further cements Hong Kong’s rise as a sports and entertainment powerhouse.”

The park sits on the site of the former Kai Tak airport. It was named for two entrepreneurs, Ho Kai and Au Tak, who proposed the original land reclamation of the area. They built three-storey homes with gardens there.

The colonial government opened the airport for both military and civilian use. In December 1930, the first flight for Guangzhou took off to Guangzhou. On March 24, 1936, British Imperial Airways – now British Airways – landed a flight from Penang in Malaysia. It was the commercial plane to land in Hong Kong.

After serious damage during World War Two, the government rebuilt and expanded it. In 1958, it opened a new 2,194-metre runway. It underwent several expansions after that and played a crucial role in the city’s economic boom from the 1970s.

By the late 1980s, it was too small and construction of a new airport began at Chek Lap Kok. The last flight, a Cathay Pacific service to London, left just after midnight on July 5, 1998.

The Kai Tak Arena, Youth Sports Ground and other indoor and outdoor spaces are open to the public for hire or for organising community sports at affordable prices, when no event or group, Law said.

“From March last year to the end of April this year, the total number of days on which sports events were held across the entire KTSP exceeded 250 days, with a cumulative attendance of over 970,000, demonstrating the Operator’s effective utilisation of the venues,” she said.

The visitor to the park may not realise it but its design reflects many cultural and historical elements. One of the most striking statues is the Nine Dragons, on the central axis that runs through the park.

“It is a symbol of eminence and extraordinary significance,” explains a booklet published by the Joint Publishing Cultural Fund. “Its sculptural form underscores diversity and Chinese culture aspirations.

“Kai Tak Sports Park features the Central Square at the very centre of its north-south central axis, embodying the traditional Chinese spatial order in revering the midpoint. At the heart of the square is a monumental installation artwork titled Nine Dragons, which draws upon the dragon’s enduring symbolism of authority, auspiciousness and protection in traditional Chinese culture,” it said.

The Eastern Plaza contains a sculpture The Transmission, created by French artist David Mesguich. It shows two children playing cuju, the earliest form of football dating back to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period (770 BC- 221 AD).

Mesguich said: “It took nearly a year to research, design the sculpture and plan the budget for this project. It was an extremely challenging endeavour. Its completion was the result of collaborative efforts involving a professional team from Guangzhou.”

Mark O'Neill

A Hong Kong-based writer, teacher and speaker.