The CEO of Hong Kong China Rugby, Robbie McRobbie, on Sunday said hosting the Rugby Sevens at Kai Tak Sports Park next year will be a “watershed” for the city.

Speaking to RTHK on the final day of this year’s Sevens tournament at Hong Kong Stadium, McRobbie highlighted that the new stadium was built with the event in mind.

“Kai Tak Sports Park, for us and for the sports and events industry in Hong Kong is an exciting watershed, it’s a huge opportunity,” he said.

“It’s going to be a stadium which is going to be one of the best in the world. It’s been built with Rugby Sevens in mind…the experience for the athletes, for the media, for the fans, for the sponsors, for the staff is going to be world-beating.

“I think we’re going to take this event and continue to make it bigger and better and the best sevens tournament in the world.”

He also said the atmosphere at Hong Kong Stadium this year is similar to that of pre-Covid tournaments.

“The comment that I’m hearing is that it’s really back to kind of how people remember pre-pandemic [times].”

“Last year we sold 32,000 tickets and we saw some of our old overseas fans come back. But this year – full house, great buzz, lots of familiar faces. So it’s definitely right back to where it was.

McRobbie, who is stepping down as CEO after this Sevens, also recalled the first time he stepped foot in Hong Kong Stadium in the early 90s.

“The first time I ever came to Sevens actually was as a young police inspector when I first came to Hong Kong in 1993, which was just as the new stadium was being built. I sat in the South Stand with my friends. Honestly, every year has been special.”

Meanwhile the CEO of World Rugby, Alan Gilpin, says he’s excited by the prospect of taking the Sevens to the new Kai Tak Sports Park. But he says more work is still needed to confirm the move and begin making arrangements for next year’s event.

“Working with the local government here and our friends at the Hong Kong China Rugby Union, I think there’s more work to do to fully confirm that and again we all want to do that quickly so that the dates are locked in for Hong Kong next year and the stadium’s locked in, and the fans start to understand how they go about accessing that,” he said on the sidelines of the Sevens.

Gilpin said the sold-out crowd this weekend showed the importance to the sport of continuing to return to Hong Kong.

“What we’ve seen, that I think has been amazing in the past few days, is that the international fans are back," he added.

"A 120,000-ticket sellout is incredible, but 40 percent of those tickets are sold to international fans, and how do we take the buzz that we’ve seen here to what will be a spectacular new stadium that will have better facilities for the media, better facilities for the players, better facilities for the fans over time? So it’s really exciting.”
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Last updated: 2024-04-07 HKT 13:39