Hong Kong’s iconic sports event is the Hong Kong Sevens, the annual three-day rugby sevens competition and for 2025 the fifth leg of the HSBC World Sevens Series. Since 1976, the three-day Sevens have been a highly anticipated, emotional event with fans from around the world booking tickets months in advance. The South Stand of the Hong Kong Stadium during the Sevens is legendary for its crazy antics and dressing up, while the competition was among the first to attract commercial sponsorship, starting with Cathay Pacific, helping to modernize the sport.
The 2025 Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens marks a bold new era, as the tournament moves across Victoria Harbor to the brand-new, HK$30 billion, 50,000 seat Kai Tak Sports Park (KTSP) Main Stadium, with its glamorous new South Stand, with a full view of the harbor and Hong Kong skyline. Nicknamed “Pearl of the Orient”, the new stadium had its debut on March 1, not long before the Hong Kong Sevens from March 28 to 30.
James Farndon, CEO of Hong Kong China Rugby, chats with Edith Terry, AmChamHK e-Magazine editor, about the challenges as Hong Kong’s most famous sports weekend moves to its new home.
“It’s exciting. Truly, truly exciting”
This is a once in a lifetime occasion, as the world’s biggest rugby party settles into its new home for the very first time. The bigger picture is the convergence of Hong Kong’s most iconic sporting event and the city’s much-anticipated, world-class stadium. It promises to usher in a transformational moment for us, both for the Sevens and for sport in the city.
Our objective is to retain the best of the Sevens traditions and all the magic that has evolved over the years, and bring all of them to a new, modern venue. Ultimately, we’ve got a bigger stadium, where even more fans will be able to enjoy the action, including a greater number of international ticket buyers and more hospitality guests. The famed South Stand has been reinvented at the Kai Tak Stadium, ensuring that the legacy of our adults-only area seating lives on. And then there’s the South Terrace, above the South Stand, that has a glass curtain wall that connects the stadium to stunning views of Victoria Harbor.
The stadium itself has a soundproof, retractable roof that can be closed in adverse weather. And the field of play for the Sevens uses the latest lay and play technology, allowing it to return to the turf nursery in between events, to keep it in great condition for 72 matches across the weekend.
The fan village just outside the venue is a new addition, open to all ticket holders, and providing areas for community activities, player and ambassador appearances, as well as opportunities for our partners to connect with fans.
The stadium affords us greater use of modern technology, with LED boards, big screens, extra comfort and leg room, as well as below-the-seat air-conditioning. And then there’s the stadium’s wide range of food and drink options, including the “The Champion” on the second level in the east concourse. The bar stretches nearly 100 meters in length along both sides, making it among the largest bars in Asia.
Finally, the entertainment precinct at Kai Tak Sports Park will offer our fans a new environment for post-match parties with over 230 retail outlets and 70 restaurants within walking distance. In summary, it’s exciting. It’s truly, truly exciting.
“Bigger house, bigger party”
We’ve been involved in a series of test events. These started back in November when we played a men’s 15s representative match against Brazil at the Youth Sports Ground, before moving to the Main Stadium in January for a University Rugby Sevens.
We’ve also done rugby demonstrations recently, including one on February 16 where we had 50,000 people in the main stadium, on a day they were testing up to 65,000 people across three of the venues on the site. While we haven’t seen people in fancy dress yet, or a full Sevens atmopshere, people have certainly enjoyed the space.
One of our strap lines for 2025 is “bigger house, bigger party”. During the event, there will be live music, DJs, roaming entertainers, community activations and lots of different activities going on in the fan village. Historically, our fans would have left the stadium and gone to certain areas of Hong Kong and partied on, but we’re looking forward to fans staying on at Kai Tak and having an amazing experience.
In terms of entertainers, we’ve got Friday night’s traditional opening ceremony, with a modern twist as we introduce a laser show to proceedings. We’ve got a Saturday singalong with Italian artist Gala Rizzatto, whose hits include Freed from Desire, one of the world’s best-known sports anthems. Then on Saturday night, we have DJ Pete Tong, with his legendary Ibiza Anthems set. And then on Sunday afternoon we have a performance with English Indie rockers Kaiser Chiefs as our headline act. I think with these acts, and with a new stadium, we really will have a bigger party in our bigger house.
The way we look at it, we don’t think anything is lost from the old stadium. And we have another marketing line, which is that home is wherever the fans are. You can see that on billboards around the city. We think we’re taking an established event to a new venue, and there’s going to be a lot of new things that we can do just thanks to it being modern and new, and a big stadium site.
Numbers
In 2024, 30% of our fans traveled from overseas. The number was 40% before the pandemic, and we expect to return to this level going forwards.
This year, we have sold more tickets than last year, and we think we will end up with 30% to 35% of sales from overseas. Hong Kong’s geographic position and ease of travel are a major plus for us as international event hosts, as is Hong Kong’s perceived role as a gateway to China. And then there are the facilities. Not only Kai Tak Sports Park but also all the infrastructure in Hong Kong is world-class. And Hong Kong also has a vibrant international community and a robust corporate base, which also helps to drive ticket and hospitality sales.
Pre-pandemic, we estimated that the international visitors alone were generating over HK$400 million to the economy during the weekend. The 2024 Sevens were estimated at HK$500 million. So, there are great opportunities there, given how we help local businesses and contractors through the tournament, and then obviously look to re-invest that revenue into rugby across Hong Kong as well.
We co-host and support Sevens Week, which many of our local and international fans attend, featuring the Hong Kong International Touch Championship, the Hong Kong Football Club Tens and the Kowloon Rugby Fest and Tens tournament. There is also the Hong Kong Sport & Sustainability Summit on March 26 during Sevens week, and the Hong Kong International Sports and Emergency Medicine Conference, which took place in 2024 and will be back in 2026 as a biennial event. Both are of high interest to new and diverse audiences.
And we probably have between 30 and 40 breakfasts, brunches, lunches, dinners and drink functions, organized by consulates, chambers of commerce, societies and local rugby clubs.
Making it easy to get there
We’ll be providing a fair amount of logistical information to all ticketholders. Through our ticketing app, emails and WhatsApps messages to ticketholders, our website and social platforms. And we are bringing this all to life in a fun way through ambassador and influencer-led videos showing transport routes to the stadium. It’s a whole work stream with our digital team and our marketing team to create those elements of the fan guide.
Through the test events and into the Sevens itself, government agencies like the Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau (CSTB) have been great partners. So we will also be running big press briefings together during event week to get the key transport options out to fans.
Based on the test events, the two MTR stations are brilliant [Kai Tak Station and Sung Wong Toi Station on the Tuen Ma Line]. And obviously, if there’s a long queue at one, you can use the other.
In terms of overseas fans, our co-title sponsor Cathay is running flight and hotel packages in 12 different global markets. We also encourage short-haul flights from Japan, Thailand, China and Kazakhstan, who will all be playing in the second annual Melrose Claymores invitational tournament as part of the Sevens.
HSBC and Cathay are our long-standing partners. They sponsor the team, which is why you’ll see their logos on our 15s and 7s representative kits. Our sponsors are in long-term deals, but they will receive some additional exposure this year because it’s a bigger event with more fans, and there’s a big spotlight on it – so all are bringing their A game and you can tell how excited they are at a senior level. We work in a highly collaborative way, and we’re all looking forward to how we can all leverage the stadium together, collectively, to make it the best fan experience we’ve had.
We work closely with the Hong Kong Tourism Board who partner the event. They sponsor the opening ceremony and pay for the international entertainment acts and the lion dance and laser show. This is a continuing relationship for us, which extends to working with their big network of international tourism offices. They help us target markets around the world that are more receptive to the Hong Kong Sevens, like the rugby core of the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. And then we focus into places like Singapore, Thailand and Japan looking for event goers who will make a shorter trip for the weekend.
As we go into China and particularly the Greater Bay Area, there is less of a barrier as people don’t have to get on a flight or book a hotel. We might attract a group of friends or a family that just wants to come and see a live sporting event. We engage with the China market through WeChat and Little Red Book (Xiaohongshu) social platforms, with content aimed at introducing people to the sport and event.
Embedding rugby in the community
The Hong Kong Sevens actually started in 1976 and it’s amazing that it has lasted so long. It’s a special, iconic event not just for rugby fans but for the whole community .
If you look at the game of rugby overall, Hong Kong boasts a vibrant rugby scene, with 51 senior rugby teams comprising more than 2,400 male and female players. We have a really competitive domestic season running from early October to the end of March every year for all levels, led by the men’s and women’s premierships, and we also have a thriving community of over 2,000 touch rugby enthusiasts.
If you look at the mini and youth game in Hong Kong, we have dynamic youth leagues, with over 1,000 young players and 3,000 mini registered rugby players spread across 27 clubs in Hong Kong. We’re really proud that 2,500 youth players take part in rugby games over the three days of the Hong Kong Sevens, as well as joining Saturday afternoon’s March Past, showing the scale of those programs.
In 2024, around 2,000 children attended our summer rugby mini and youth courses to learn the fundamental skills of rugby, funded by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD).
We also have the All About Rugby program, with the support of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, operating in over 200 schools across Hong Kong, as well as the HSBC Try Rugby program that has given 67,500 students a taste of rugby since 2017.
We have a charity called Rugby For Good, which was the first Section 88 charity in Hong Kong to be founded by a National Sports Association. It’s now 10 years old, using sports to provide education, targeting areas of social inclusion and wellbeing for underprivileged children and youth in Hong Kong.
Finally we partner with the University of Sunderland in Hong Kong and the Kai Tak Sports Initiative to offer a BTEC Level Five Higher National Diploma in sports. This program aims to cultivate industry professionals and combines academic study with practical experience, including work experience opportunities at the Hong Kong Sevens event, and also networking for real-world career opportunities.
Overall the re-investment in the game across communities, across different groups, across society, is central to what we do as an organization, given that we re-invest from the Hong Kong Sevens event into all those good causes.
Why the Sevens is Hong Kong’s ‘greatest show on earth’
It is over many years that the Hong Kong Sevens has evolved into one of the world’s most iconic sports events, and for that reason it is seen as one of a bucket list of experiences for many international visitors. I think our fans see the electric atmosphere created by the tournament as Hong Kong’s annual Mardi Gras. They are always highly appreciative of the rugby on offer and have done so much to make the event their own with things like the South Stand and the fancy dress phenomenon.
To maintain the event’s profile we continue to invest significant resources into ensuring that the weekend always has something to offer non-rugby fans as well, so the live acts, the bands, the groups, solo singers, the DJ as well as countless sponsor activations on the field of play and the concourse, the ambassadors, you name it.
I’ve watched the Sevens for many years as a rugby enthusiast, but I think the thing that stands out from the Hong Kong Sevens compared to other sporting events is the atmosphere in the stadium, that’s created by the fans. It’s an inspiring atmosphere when you have some of the world’s best athletes on stage, and some of the world’s best entertainment acts as part of the event as well. And with the new stadium, it’s going to be a very, very special occasion.
James Farndon is the Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong China Rugby (HKCR), having taken on the role in June 2024. He previously held senior roles with Saudi Olympic Training Center, UK Sport, the English Institute for Sport, Loughborough University and the Rugby Football Union – and with HKCR as General Manager of Performance.
The Hong Kong Rugby Union was founded in 1952 and became affiliated with World Rugby in 1988. It organizes the annual Hong Kong Sevens and the Hong Kong Rugby Union Premierships. Rugby football has been played in Hong Kong since at least the establishment of the Hong Kong Football Club in 1886.