Chris Brooke, chairman of Hong Kong China Rugby, is on the show this week.

He talks about the latest Rugby Sevens at the new Kai Tak Stadium that has brought fans in for a new experience and why it was a success. He also talks about ongoing plans to get more grassroots Hong Kong people involved in the game itself.

Check out the full transcript of TVB’s Straight Talk host Dr Eugene Chan’s interview with Chris Brooke:

Chan: Good evening and welcome to a special edition of Straight Talk. I'm Eugene Chan, and I'm delighted to have you with us here at the Kai Tak Stadium on the final day of the first-ever Hong Kong Sevens at this world-class venue. Joining us today is the chairman of Hong Kong China Rugby, Chris Brooke, a passionate rugby veteran and dedicated leader in sports development. Having lived here for over 40 years, Chris played for Valley Rugby Football Club and proudly represented Hong Kong in Asian tournaments and World Cup qualifiers between 1999 and 2001. Beyond the pitch, he has played a key role in growing the game, including developing youth rugby programmes in Beijing, before returning to Hong Kong in 2013. Professionally, Chris is a chartered surveyor with nearly three decades of experience advising public and private sector organisations on property development across the Asia Pacific region. It is a real pleasure to have him with us today. Welcome, Chris!

Brooke: Thank you!

Chan: We're now at this special venue. I'm sure this is one of the first ever programs that have a direct view of the pitch. So, how do you find the Rugby Sevens so far?

Brooke: Yes, so far, it's been an excellent weekend, which obviously … this is the start of day three. The new stadium is a state-of-the-art fantastic facility and we've settled in very well, I think, very successfully day one and two. We've seen very good crowds coming in – a good experience. I think, whether it be the corporate boxes, the South Stand or the hospitality. Everyone, I think, has enjoyed the event. So far, rugby has been great. So, I think we have settled into our new home well, so far.

Chan: Right, Chris. Last year, we celebrated the 30th anniversary actually at the Hong Kong Stadium with Robert McRobbie, and now we can view a new era here in the Kai Tak new stadium. How do you find that? You mentioned that so far it's been great because the final day. Any hiccups at all?

Brooke: No, And I think it's always going to be very challenging, maybe complicated, to move to a new venue from an old venue where you've been hosting the event for a very long time, a couple of decades. So, I think really the challenge is more about just moving into a new venue. People are getting used to the layout, to the facilities, the way that the stadium operates. But I think, you know, as we said, when we've been doing various media releases, our objective has been to take the best of what we had in Hong Kong Stadium, bring it to Kai Tak and then enhance it. So, some of the areas that we've traditionally really focused on, whether it be the South Stand, the mini rugby, the opening ceremony, we brought that here, and then we've enhanced things through having the fan village and sort of enhanced F&B, more hospitality. So, I think, yeah, always, as people get used to it, on Friday, we had a lot of people sort of trying to find their bearings with the new stadium. Where do I sit? Where's the bars? Where's the restaurants? But I think, generally speaking, people have settled in well, and we've been working very closely with Kai Tak Sports Park to make sure that the fan experience is as good as possible. Always going to be some teething issues. We've had some queues at some F&B because the demands have been very high, but I think we try to resolve those on a day-by-day basis.

Chan: How many teams are competing this year compared to previous years? Can we have more teams in the stadium?

Brooke: No, we were adopting a similar format, which is the World Rugby Seven series format. So, we have 12 men’s, 12 women's teams, and then we also have the additional Melrose Claymore Tournament, which Hong Kong, China plays in. So, we're going to continue to adopt that format I think. And also with the Melrose Claymores, the Hong Kong men are playing China and Japan, and the women are playing Kazakhstan and Thailand. So, it's fantastic for the Hong Kong, China team to be able to play as well. As we look forward to the next year, we'll probably look at whether we can activate other parts of the Kai Tak Sports Park. So, this year, we've really focused on the main stadium and the fan village. We haven't utilised the Indoor Arena or the Youth Sports Ground. As we move forward and get more confident and get used to the facility, maybe we can look at doing some complementary events around the weekend.

Chan: Right. Someone said that this Kai Tak Stadium actually has a purpose-built for Rugby Sevens. Would you, sort of, tell us more about that?

Brooke: Yes, sure. So, we've been involved in all the consultations with the government since the inception of the project 10 years ago, between 2016 and 2019.

Chan: So, it's been about 10 years ago?

Brooke: Almost 10 years ago. We've been involved with the architects and the designers. If you look at the way in which the stadium is being designed, we have 24 changing rooms. So, every team has their own changing room downstairs. The South Stand has been replicated in a bigger and better version. So, in the old stadium, it was about four and a half thousand capacity. Here we're about 6,000.

Chan: Did you say we have like 24 training rooms?

Brooke: Yes.

Chan: Compared to like two or four?

Brooke: I think, in talking to some of the players yesterday, I think in the old stadium, four teams had to share a changing room and on a rotation basis, which clearly was not ideal. Here they come in, they've got a main changing area, they've got a warm-up area, a physio room, every team, so they can base themselves the weekend, leave their things here. So, for the players, it's been a fantastic experience. The pitch is clearly purpose-built for rugby as well, which is very good. And you know, we've obviously been working very closely with Kai Tak in the last six months to make sure that all that's been executed.

Chan: Chris, I think another notable feature here is the retractable roof ...

Brooke: Absolutely.

Chan: ... which we can see is very open right now. How long does it take to close back up again? For example, just in case, it's raining very heavily.

Brooke: It takes about half an hour to open and close. You can't open and close whilst we have spectators in the stadium. So, we have to make a decision every day on whether to open or close. We took the view on Friday that we would close, just to create a bit of a different atmosphere for the fans. Yesterday was open and today is open. I think we feel that for the final day, it's good to be open. We also got some pyrotechnics later on, which means the roof needs to be open, and we have the Cathay fly-past at 4 o'clock this afternoon. So, we want to make sure that fans are able to enjoy that experience.

Chan: And I'm sure a lot of people talk about the term South Stand, which is right over there. What exactly is it?

Brooke: So, the South Stand is where a lot of our younger, dedicated rugby fans, not just younger, actually focus on the weekend. So, people come to socialize. There's a great atmosphere and vibe there. A lot of the rugby clubs meet and go as a group. A lot of the younger people in Hong Kong meet for breakfast and then go for the day. There's a bit of fancy dress in there as well. Social fun experience. And I think people just come to enjoy the rugby and spend time with their friends and, yeah, have a bit of a party as well.

Chan: Right, I kind of read up on the history of Rugby Sevens in Hong Kong. I think it started in 1976, but with the Hong Kong stadium, like nearly 30 years ago. So, when did all this fancy dress come into it? Because, I mean, I'm sure originally you were talking about rugby.

Brooke: Yes. I think the events just evolved over the years. I think this is the 49th year, with our 50th anniversary next year, 2026.

Chan: Right.

Brooke: And I think people sometimes say, you know, how did you create the magic of the Hong Kong Sevens? I think the reality is, we haven't created it. It's evolved. The fans have evolved it. So, it's become a fan experience. And I think the unique thing about the Hong Kong Sevens is, it's a combination of the rugby, the social aspect, the business, hospitality, the entertainment. And in Hong Kong, we've managed to evolve an event which has all those ingredients which work really well for the weekend together. So, you know, I see, we see ourselves as the custodians of the event. You know, I'm a chairman for a limited term. I take it forward for a few years, and then I pass it on to someone else. And we want to make sure that we protect all of the good things of the last 49 years and continue to build going forward. But I do think we have a, you know, because we get the backing of the fans, the business community, our sponsors, everybody wants to make the weekend a success, which is great and for that, for us, that means that as long as we provide the context and the framework, everybody can come and enjoy.

Chan: Right, do you think, I mean, it's a new era right now ... We always say that kicking off a new era at the new Kai Tak Stadium, apart from the south stand, apart from the fans with the fancy dresses and the F&Bs and also the pyrotechnics as well. What else is new to this game?

Brooke: Yes, I think the great thing about this, because Kai Tak Sports Park is a precinct, as against just the stadium, we're able to look at activation across the precinct. So, we've got a fan village on the outside of the stadium in the East Area that allows us to have activations with our partners. So, the Jockey Club, West Kowloon, and the Tourism Board have all got activations in the fan village. Cathay, HSBC, as our sponsors, also have that, and we're able to and Carlsberg and others, so we're able to give the fans a little bit of a different experience. So, it's not just the in-stadium, it's also the outside, in terms of the fan village, and obviously the technology in the stadium, with the screens, the sound system, it allows us to have bigger and better entertainment, laser shows, some of the things that we've had over the last couple of days, which I think, overall for us, as I say, takes the best of what we had in Hong Kong stadium and adds the enhancement here.

Chan: Someone said there's an 18-meter-wide range for entertainment. I think they're referring to that area, aren't they?

Brooke: Yes. So, we've got a couple of features. We've got the terrace above the South Stand, where we've got the stage. We've got the Champions Bar, which is the sports bar over in the West End, sorry, the East End, and so, yeah, just a few additional features, a lot more hospitality options in lounges and suites as well. So, I think for the fans, it just gives a broader range of experience and just gives them options over the weekend.

Chan: One of the reasons people liked the old Hong Kong Stadium was because of its location – it’s right in Causeway Bay, and people just go to Lan Kwai Fong afterwards. Now, we are over in West Kowloon, I mean, the Kai Tak area. How do you find this for the fans? Will they try to look for some sort of a nice area, or will they move back to Kowloon, Hong Kong?

Brooke: Yes. I think what we're trying to do is, because it's the first time here, and we don't know how fans are going to want to behave, we've tried to give optionality. Give optionality, so the fan village is open till 10:30 at night, so people can stay here if they wish to for a while after the tournament. We've got the shuttle buses and MTR obviously back to Tsim Sha Tsui, Central Causeway Bay. So, and then we've got people who are distributing in the local area, some going to the Airside near Kai Tak, or into Kowloon City, or Ma Tau Wai. I think again we will do some analysis after the weekend just to see what the patterns were. But I think we've seen a good number of people, a couple of thousands, staying here in the fan village, and then others … shuttle buses have been very popular back to Tsim Sha Tsui and Central and Causeway Bay. And then the MTR has been very smooth. So, I think location-wise, access-wise, actually it's as convenient, if not more convenient than Causeway Bay.

Chan: Let's take a short break now. But viewers, stay with us. We will be right back.

Chan: Welcome back, we have been talking with Chris, talking about the background of the Rugby Sevens at the new Kai Tak Stadium. So, Chris, you have explained to the viewers that everything has been going quite well so far, but one, sort of a, one common area that we talked about very much in the last few months is actually the transportation coming to Kai Tak. We had a lot of rehearsals here, we had the opening, and people were anticipating with like 50,000 fans. I mean, this is quite a large number, compared to even with the old Hong Kong Stadium. Have you encountered anything sort of ad hoc coming up or so far has been pretty good?

Brooke: I think transportation has been relatively smooth. I think we have encouraged most people to use the MTR, which has been very efficient, and the MTR has been very helpful in terms of increasing the frequency of trains to both coming into the stadium and going out. I think on the first day, we encountered a couple of issues with taxi locations and car drop-offs and things, again mainly because the venue is new and some of the drivers are not quite sure around the road system. But I think over the last, certainly yesterday, compared to Friday, it was much better. And I think now that people are getting familiar with the location and we have been working with the government, with the Transport Department, to help the taxi drivers and other drivers know where to drop off and where to pick up. That has definitely improved. So, yes, a couple of teething issues as you'd expect in a new venue, but, generally, I think it has worked pretty well.

Chan: Right, so you’d encourage more people to come?

Brooke: Yes, definitely, absolutely. I think it is very efficient and all the feedback I have had from people is that it has been very smooth, the journey here, it is quicker than people expected, it is more convenient. As I say, a couple of issues with taxi pickup on Friday night, which I think was publicised, but I think we addressed that yesterday. And as far as I am aware, it was very smooth yesterday in terms of pickups.

Chan: Right, as I mentioned earlier, the Hong Kong Stadium had a capacity of like 40,000 people, and now this place is like 50,000 people. Do you have any concern when you go with your ticket sales in the planning stage?

Brooke: No, I think we were always … it is always a bit daunting to take on a new venue and a bigger venue. I think we always, our expectations were to sell probably 42,000 to 43,000. We knew we probably wouldn't in year one get to the 50,000. And in fact, the way we built out the stadium, our real capacity is only probably 47,500 anyway, because we have corporate boxes, we blocked some areas off for the South Stand. So, I think today, I think the final number, although we are currently still selling tickets for today, so I think we will be at 44,000, 45,000, which for us is a fantastic number. We are very pleased with that. It gives us a great foundation for next year to get to the full house, and it is well within our expectations. And I think what is very, very pleasing is we have taken the Hong Kong Stadium number and we have increased it, and this year we have also got more international visitors as well, which is very pleasing as well.

Chan: Right. I had the privilege to be here yesterday, and I saw that there are plenty of sort of Western-speaking people. Do we actually have more overseas visitors or they live in Hong Kong?

Brooke: I think a bit of both. I mean, the Hong Kong residents and the expat community obviously come out in force for this weekend.

Chan: Right.

Brooke: But I think we have a ticketing app where we distribute our tickets through mobile phone numbers, and we use that for the analytics. This year I think we are … last year we were about 30 percent overseas. I think this year we are expecting to be probably more like 40 percent, partly because there are some flight routes that have been opened up since last year, like South Africa, where there were no direct flights last year. Now we have got them. So, we have seen a lot more demand from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and from Europe as well. I think we won't have the final numbers for a couple of weeks after we have done the analysis. But I am guessing it is going to be more like 60/40, in terms of local to overseas, which is getting very close to the pre-COVID, which was more like 50/50. So, we are getting closer.

Chan: We have always talked about the GBA, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Do you anticipate or actually felt that there is a strong sort of travel from the GBA?

Brooke: Yeah, we have been very focused on marketing the event in the GBA. Last year, we had a couple of thousand mainland Chinese ticket buyers. This year, I think we will end up with maybe 4,000 to 5,000. We have had KOLs and influencers on Xiaohongshu and other things promoting the event in the GBA. And I think we have seen quite a lot of interest in people coming down, maybe not for the full three days, but for a day trip, and then experiencing the new stadium. And as we look forward to next year, again, we will be very focused on having a bigger component of mainland visitors as well.

Chan: I mean, you just mentioned that I think the fans here were, I think they are very happy, the vibe was fantastic. And I am sure you can attract more for Hong Kong, in terms of international events. This is what we call “Super March” month in Hong Kong at the moment. So, would you anticipate you will be doing more focused marketing for the next year, maybe even start earlier?

Brooke: Yes, we have started pretty much, as we finish this event, we start marketing and thinking about next year.

Chan: Very, very good.

Brooke: So, this year we … and I think what we found this year, we have tried a couple of additional collaborations. So, we have always had partners, very reliable partners, such as the Jockey Club and the Tourism Board. This year we did a collaboration with West Kowloon. So, we had our team announcement event in West Kowloon last Sunday, they have an activation in Fan Village. We are looking at the synergies between different groups within Hong Kong so that we can have a broader appeal and a holistic approach to the week. We have a big rugby week, so we have the Hong Kong 10s, we have the Kowloon 10s rugby tournaments, the International Touch Tournament in the week before. So, definitely it is already a rugby week, but I think as we look forward to next year, we are going to look at additional collaborations, whether it be with organisations such as Jockey Club or West Kowloon, in terms of sports and culture, bringing visitors in for the week, or obviously Art Basel and others around ‘Super March’, or whether other sporting events. We have a collaboration with LIV Golf, where we did cross-marketing of the LIV Golf earlier this month.

Chan: Right, yes.

Brooke: And the Sevens, and that has been very successful because the LIV Golf has a bit of a similar vibe to the Sevens, and there is quite a lot of crossover in terms of spectators. So, again, we are looking at making it bigger and better, and as I said earlier, I think with the indoor arena, the youth sports ground, we can look at broader collaborations and have that synergy around complementary events over a week to ten days.

Chan: Right. So, Chris, you being the chairman of Hong Kong China Rugby, having this responsibility or the privilege of guiding rugby development in Hong Kong, how do you feel now with this new stadium? Are we, is this the … have we reached the end now or this is just the beginning? How do you feel?

Brooke: This is just the beginning, Eugene. I think, you know, I think, myself as the chair, and our board of directors and our senior management, we feel very responsible for The Sevens. We see ourselves as the custodians of the event. Lots of hard work has gone in over the last 49 years to make it what it is now. And we see the need, the responsibility for us, is to take the event and enhance it, and continue to drive it. The surplus revenue we generate from the event funds rugby in Hong Kong, so we have to do that, and all of the money we make goes back into the game. So, it is very much around making sure that we continue to do that. And for us, there is a broader responsibility also to Hong Kong, we feel that. And the Sevens has become a little bit of a barometer for the positivity of Hong Kong. So, for us, again, if it goes well, we have lots of international visitors, everyone has an enjoyable time, we see ourselves contributing to the event's economy, to the broader positivity of Hong Kong. So, you are right, it is a big responsibility, but it is also a privilege. And we feel very privileged to be able to be the custodians of such a great event in such a great facility, and so we feel very positive about that. And for us, it is, as I said, this is the beginning because we can see a lot more potential of making this a bigger and better rugby event, but also a bigger and better event for Hong Kong in general.

Chan: Right. Chris, I have been thinking, actually while sitting here yesterday, I was filled with the vibes and the people are actually very happy, and it would be great to come back for a weekend. How can we involve more local fans? That is something I have been thinking about because rugby isn't sort of a traditional Hong Kong sport or Chinese sport. And I have talked to some people, they said, “I will go to rugby, but just for the F&B, I don't want to come and play.” How are you going to promote this game further, especially to the grassroots level? Because it doesn't cost that much to play in a way because it is just having a rugby ball.

Brooke: Absolutely. The Hong Kong China Rugby, we issued our latest 10-year strategy last year, and we have three key pillars. One is the representative program of Hong Kong, China players, representing Hong Kong, men and women, 15 (a-side) or Sevens; The second is community and participation, and that is a key focus for us. We want to grow the local game, and actually we are seeing the adoption of the game in the local community increasing, particularly at the mini level, the youth level, and then coming into the senior game. We are very focused on building local clubs and helping support the growth of the game across Hong Kong. So, for us, it is not about just the sort of elite sport piece, it is about the grassroots, as you say, the community. We have our Rugby for Good, our charitable trust, which does a lot of programs with the Jockey Club and other funders, the Kandoori Foundation and others, HSBC, helping with programs such as ADHD Rugby, Deaf Rugby, Domestic Helpers Rugby. So, all of that is an objective to broaden the grassroots. And we have just relaunched what we call the Dragons Program, which is a Hong Kong Chinese representative team, which will go on tour to places like the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and represent Hong Kong. So, again, very focused on broadening the grassroots game and extending the game into the local community. And we'd love rugby to be the team sport of Hong Kong, so that is our objective.

Chan: The one question I think you can address to the viewers, because to most people, it is a fairly contact sport, isn't it? For the normal Chinese build, kids, they are not very big. So, is it dangerous?

Brooke: It is not dangerous at all, actually. And I think played in the right way, managed correctly, it is very safe. I mean clearly it is a physical sport. So, I think if you are playing the full contact 15-a-side rugby, you need to go in eyes open that it is a contact sport, and we all play that. I think what we have tried to do and what we continue to do is look at options for the local community. So, we have the full contact traditional rugby, we have Sevens, which again, local sports people are very suited to. I mean as you see, we have got some local stars who are now appearing for the Sevens team.

Chan: Right.

Brooke: And we are also looking at non-contact rugby, touch, we have an International Touch Tournament this week. And I think actually I see tremendous potential on the non-contact touch, and I think we are sending teams to the Touch World Championships. And Ricky Cheuk, one of our board members who used to play Sevens for Hong Kong, took a delegation there and played in the touch. I think Salom Yiu will play touch a little bit now going forward as well. So, some of our stars are looking at that non-contact piece. And I think that is a tremendous area of growth for us going forward.

Chan: One more question before we have to leave is: how well is the Hong Kong team doing this time?

Brooke: Yeah, the Hong Kong, China team doing very well. As I said earlier, we have got the Melrose Claymores tournament. So, both teams won both of their games so far, in this tournament particularly. So, the Sevens team is doing extremely well. And hopefully we will see what happens later today, but maybe we will have a couple of champions, we will see, they have got to go through the Finals today. And then we are still also doing well on the 15-a-side, outside the Sevens. Our men have an opportunity to potentially go to the World Cup if they win the Asia Rugby Championships this year. And the women are doing very well as well. So, you know, we are highly ranked worldwide, I think our men are now 22 in the world, the girls are top 20. And we are both in the top 20 for Sevens, roughly around 15 to 18. So, yes, I think in terms of the quality of our players, the performance, going well and we want to continue to build on that.

Chan: Right. Chris, thank you very much for sharing the insights for us, and especially be able to bring the stadium for the viewers at home. And the move to Kai Tak has definitely kicked off a new era for Rugby Sevens, reinforcing Hong Kong's status as a global rugby hub, preserving the electrifying spirit that makes this event so special.

Until next week, I am Eugene Chan, and thank you.