In today’s edition

• Joined-up thinking

   

• Show me the money

   

• What’s on where

It is very easy to view some of the significant sporting events that Hong Kong hosts in isolation, primarily because it feels as though the city’s various promoters and governing bodies have been operating that way for years.

At the start of last month, which feels like a lifetime ago, we had the final round of golf’s Hong Kong Open and the finals of the Prudential Hong Kong Tennis Open on the same Sunday.

If the Women’s World Cup had not intervened, that day would have also seen the culmination of the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes.

Three events, all with M Mark funding, all drawing visitors to the city and all seemingly unaware of the others’ existence. A perfect example of Hong Kong’s position as a global hub for sport and entertainment, and yet there was little, if any, attempt to sell the weekend as a whole from a tourism perspective.

It is not a new issue. Rugby has avoided marketing the week around the Cathay/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens as a festival of the sport for years, allowing the city’s landmark sporting occasion, assorted 10s tournaments, dinners and community events to all exist in their own bubbles.

But there is reason to hope this April might be different, because next year horse racing at Happy Valley is going to be thrown into the mix, and that should change everything.

Now, visitors can be enticed with the prospect of five days of racing, rugby and whatever else they want to get up to in a city that has more to offer than most around the world.

It is a dream ticket for tourism chiefs, an opportunity you would call a gimme in golf or an open goal in football – the week should sell itself, as long as someone bothers to try.

Josh Ball

News Editor, Sport & Racing

Show me the money

If any further motivation were needed to launch a campaign around rugby and racing, then the latest figures from two events should do the trick.

A financial breakdown of the impact of this year’s Sevens concluded that it generated nearly US$100 million for the local economy, attracting some 10,000 visitors in the process.

This week the Longines Hong Kong International Races have come to town, of which more in a moment, and that has brought another type of visitor to the city, with officials predicting a HK$35 million boost from some of the well-heeled types that follow the sport.

What's on where this weekend

What’s on where this weekend

• It’s one of the biggest weekends in the city’s racing calendar, and the Longines Hong Kong International Races reach their climax in Sha Tin on Sunday with the Turf World Championships. The action gets under way at 11.10am for what promises to be a thrilling day on the track.

   

• The World Table Tennis Finals have been quietly bubbling along at the Hong Kong Coliseum over the past few days, and it’s semi-finals day on Saturday for the mixed doubles and women’s singles, with two of the men’s quarter-finals also taking place. World No 1s Sun Yingsha and Wang Chuqin continue their battle for mixed doubles gold at 2.05pm, with the final scheduled for 9pm. The men’s and women’s singles finals will be on Sunday.

   

• Fresh from two very different experiences in the AFC Champions League 2, Eastern and Tai Po’s clash is the pick of a full slate of Hong Kong Premier League matches this weekend. The pair kick off at 6pm on Sunday at Mong Kok Stadium, while other games taking place can be found here.

   

• And to continue our rugby and racing theme, there is plenty of the former happening on Saturday. All six teams are in action in the Nan Fung Group | Airside Men’s Premiership, with the pick of the games pitting Valley against Football Club at Happy Valley at 2.50pm. The women are also all in action, with Kowloon facing a USRC Tigers side hoping to close the gap on leaders Valley. That game starts at 6.05pm at King’s Park. A full list of the weekend’s fixtures can be found here.