Kai Tak Sports Park Sold 1.25 Million Tickets in Its First Year

Kai Tak sold 1.25 million tickets in its first year

Kai Tak Sports Park opened on 1 March 2025 with a 50,000-seat stadium and a 10,000-seat arena. In its debut year the stadium sold roughly 1.25 million tickets worth about US$191.34 million, ranking third in the world and first in Asia for stadium ticket sales, according to Pollstar's global venue rankings as reported by the South China Morning Post on 15 December 2025. On gross ticket revenue it ranked fifth worldwide and first in Asia; the Kai Tak Arena placed eighth in Asia for gross revenue. Both figures were repeated at the park's first-anniversary announcement in March 2026, which also put stadium and arena utilisation at close to 90 percent.

Half a million people saw a concert there by the end of May

By 31 May 2025, three months after commissioning, 590,000 spectators had attended a combined 15 large-scale concerts at the stadium and arena, more than half of them visitors from mainland China and overseas, the government told the Legislative Council on 18 June 2025. The single-match record came two months later: 49,704 people watched AC Milan beat Liverpool 4-2 in the Hong Kong Football Festival on 26 July 2025, the SCMP reported at the time — the biggest football crowd the city had drawn.

Kai Tak Mall's sales rose 40 percent in the first quarter of 2026

Retail footfall and sales at Kai Tak Mall, next to the stadium, grew 40 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2026, China Daily reported on 18 May 2026. The lift is sharper on event days: retailers told China Daily their sales rise 20 to 30 percent on average during concerts and matches, with foot traffic roughly doubling at some outlets, including the footwear retailer Oofos and the restaurant chain Watami. The mall reported sales up more than 20 percent again in July 2026, tied to that month's event calendar. The spillover into the wider district is measured two different ways, and the two don't agree: Legislative Council member Kennedy Wong told The Young Reporter in January 2026 that Kowloon City district businesses were up "over 30 percent"; China Daily's own survey of restaurants after the Hong Kong Sevens found growth of 10 to 15 percent. Both are on the record; neither has been reconciled with the other.

Businesses near the stadium are profitable on three or four days a month

The concentration cuts both ways. A worker at a noodle shop in Kai Tak Mall told The Young Reporter that foot traffic on event days runs close to three times the usual level, and Wong said merchants report sales three times higher than on non-event days. Both sources placed that pattern at three to four days a month; the remaining 26 or 27 days, they said, see minimal traffic. That is the shape of Hong Kong's newest mega-event venue as it enters its second year: extraordinary on event nights, quiet the rest of the time.