Sooner or later, the rugby sevens will have to select a larger venue,
according to the tournament organizers. And Hong Kong had better build a larger one, just for this event. The annual Hong Kong Rugby Sevens is once again a mega-party for rugby fans, sports fans and even investors alike. For a complete tournament three-day pass at the 40,000 seat venue, fans will have to pay US $129 this year, a 20% price hike from the previous year. Despite the unwarranted inflation, demand for tickets is still high--if you bought tickets last minute, anything under US $775 would have been a discount. Only 5,000 seats of Hong Kong's most popular sporting event were available to the public, and were sold out within 4 hours.
Regardless of its recent turmoil in the US subprime market, and its subsequent negative pressure on Asian stock markets, main sponsor Credit Suisse remained optimistic for, well, a party. The investment bank said that it will host an Asian investors' conference after the rugby, although how the two events are related has yet to be seen. On Friday, the highlights were as follows: New Zealand whooped Taiwan (expected), Samoa whooped Sri Lanka (expected), Fiji whooped South Korea (expected), Hong Kong almost tied Australia (what?), South Africa whooped Japan (expected) and Kenya whooped China (definitely expected). The tournament goes on, Saturday (pool) and Sunday (finals). So the results weren't all that amazing, but at least booming business in Lan Kwai Fong is something to be cheerful about in times of a dwindling stock market.
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