The head of Kai Tak Sports Park said on Tuesday that the park would work to capitalise on the "football fever" building up over the coming World Cup in 2026 by staging more matches involving elite teams.

The remarks came as the park's 50,000-capacity Kai Tak Stadium was ranked number three in ticket sales in the world this year by Pollstar – a US-based trade publication for the concert and live music industry – just nine months after its opening in March.

The stadium placed No 5 in the world for total gross revenue, while its sister venue, the 10,000-seat Kai Tak Arena, ranked as Asia's No 8 in the same category.

Speaking on RTHK's Backchat programme, chief executive John Sharkey said the park delivered on a whole range of "diverse and balanced" sporting and entertainment events throughout the year, especially those held in the summer as part of the Hong Kong Football Festival.

"It was fantastic because being able to come to Asia at that time of the year, you have high humidity and high temperatures, and the teams were delighted to be able to play elite football at a competitive level on Kai Tak's pitch with the roof closed and the air conditioned," he said.

Looking ahead to 2026, Sharkey said one of the key areas would be continue to seize the opportunities presented by the "football fever" seen in the city since June, following legendary contests such as those involving the Hong Kong, China squad, AC Milan and Liverpool.

"What we're trying to do next year is to do something the same or better. Obviously, next year is a challenge because we have the World Cup on in America," Sharkey said.

"What we're trying to do is to get teams that will have a big enough squad that will be able to cater for players coming back from the World Cup and also trying to time it so that they'll get a chance to get a bit of rest after the World Cup and then also play in Hong Kong."

Sharkey said the park hopes to create more "community effects" in Kowloon and West Kowloon through synergies with local retail and catering businesses.

Lawmaker Adrian Ho, for his part, said he was "surprised" by the rankings for Kai Tak Stadium as they were much better than he had expected.

He said there's potential for the stadium to be ranked first next year given that its high rankings were achieved on the back of operating for just nine months this year.

Ho also noted that Kai Tak Stadium's opening had "freed up spaces" for smaller-scale events to be held at other venues.

"It frees up the Hong Kong Coliseum, AsiaWorld-Expo, as well as other kinds of smaller arenas, for different cultural events, which has always been a problem where a lot of smaller-scale events or less mainstream cultural performances always lacked venues for performance," he said.

Certified special events professional Robert Rogers also said he expects more large-scale acts to be held at Kai Tak Stadium next year.

"In the past, when you have a large act that would be coming through, they would just totally overlook Hong Kong because there's just no space for them," he said.

"So next time if Britney [Spears] comes through, or any one of those, it would be wonderful to see some bigger acts. And we got Black Pink coming soon."

Pollstar's No 3 ranking for Kai Tak Stadium came on the back of it selling 1.2 million tickets worth US$191.34 million.

SoFI Stadium in Los Angeles came in second with 1.2 million tickets sold that were worth US$236.14 million, while Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City sold 3.19 million tickets worth US$297.84 million.