In his 2024 policy address, Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee made building Hong Kong into an events hub one of his priorities.
Including flagship events such as the LIV Golf tournament and the Art Basel exhibition, the cornerstone to this strategy is undoubtedly the new Kai Tak Sports Park, located at the site of the city’s former international airport, which officially opened its doors on 1 March 2025.
Ground was first broken on the project in April 2019 and was completed at the end of 2024 at a cost of approximately US$3.9 billion. It includes a 50,000 seat stadium, 10,000 seat indoor arena and 5,000 seat public sports ground.
The Kai Tak Stadium is now the largest of its kind in Hong Kong, surpassing the 20-year old 40,000 seat Hong Kong Stadium, which was rarely used for non-sports events.
Construction is far from over as the Sports Park is just part of the larger Kai Tak development, which is expected to be completed later this year and will include additional residential, commercial, and entertainment projects.
The stadium was inaugurated in April with two high profile events, namely the HSBC SVNS (a rebrand of the classic Hong Kong Rugby Sevens), and four nights of Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour.
In anticipation of the city’s next major event, a Manchester United exhibition match against the city’s representative side in May, it might be illustrative to recap some of the issues encountered during the recent Coldplay concerts and the disastrous Inter Miami exhibition match of 2024, to understand and better protect the rights of consumers and fans, and in turn, strengthen Hong Kong’s reputation as a reliable events hub.
Re Coldplay – Tickets with Obstructed Views
While concertgoers would generally agree Coldplay delivered some great concerts, the city’s Consumer Council received over 230 complaints, the majority of which surround the fact there were significantly obstructed views in sections of the stadium.
When buying tickets online, some concertgoers noted there was no warning the tickets they were purchasing would have obstructed views. This was only discovered when they received their physical tickets, or on arrival at the Kai Tak Stadium.
The situation has yet to improve, as the Consumer Council has received another 17 complaints arising from the four subsequent concerts by Hong Kong Canto-pop singer Nicholas Tse Ting-fung at the Kai Tak Stadium, where again ticketing platforms allegedly did not indicate prior to checkout that some seats would have obstructed views.
Once again, fans only discovered this when they received their printed tickets or when they showed up at the stadium.
There is a fairly strong case to argue the ticketing platforms withheld material information about the problematic tickets in violation of the Trade Descriptions Ordinance.
Under this Ordinance, traders are prohibited from supplying a service with false trade descriptions (section 7A), and engaging in misleading omissions, hiding material information or providing ambiguous material information that would induce the average consumer into make a transactional decision (section 13E).
Ticketing platforms would likely have been aware of the seating arrangements within the stadium when offering tickets for sale to the general public, and consequently, would be responsible for correctly describing each type of ticket. This is further supported by the fact the phrase “obstructed views” was printed on physical tickets buyers received.
Given ticket holders were there to watch Coldplay’s live performance, not being able to see the band perform for a substantial part of the concert, information the ticketing platforms had not disclosed, would be reason enough for potential concertgoers not to buy those tickets. Not being able to see Coldplay perform gave those affected a completely different experience from other concertgoers.
Under the Ordinance, an offence committed under either section 7A or 13E can incur a penalty of up to a HK$500,000 and 5 years imprisonment, or a HK$100,000 fine and 2 years imprisonment on a summary conviction.
Although no cases have yet been brought to Hong Kong’s courts, these incidents highlight the need for greater care and transparency by ticket retailers, who undoubtedly will have to handle events of a similar scale in the future. Next month, Kai Tak will host concerts by Taiwanese acts Mayday and Jay Chou, as well as Singaporean artist JJ Lin.
In light of the Coldplay and Nicholas Tse concerts, lawmakers in Hong Kong called on ticketing platforms and event organizers to be more transparent about seating arrangements. They have also suggested event organisers consider reducing prices for obstructed view seats to improve “expectation management” for concertgoers.
Recap of the Inter Miami – Hong Kong exhibition match
Advertising issues can arise if advertising and promotional materials related to “mega events,” ( a recognized classification given to events that “generate significant and immediate economic, social and/or cultural benefits to Hong Kong,”) heavily feature specific individuals who eventually do not appear, with the “no-show” potentially amounting to misrepresentation or a false trade description.
In February 2024, the MLS football Inter Miami played a friendly football match against Hong Kong’s representative side. The exhibition match was meant to be supported by US$2.06 million in government funding and grant.
As part of the Government’s funding agreement, Inter Miami franchise star Lionel Messi, a major draw, was reportedly contracted to play at least 45 minutes, “subject to fitness and safety consideration”. In fact, this clause was reported to be part of the Government’s requirement for funding.
Messi’s tour was widely promoted in Hong Kong, including a junk with an image of his face on it, which sailed along Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour.
In the event, Inter Miami withdrew Messi from the exhibition match due to alleged injury, and organizers Tatler Asia were informed only minutes before the match started, while the public were kept in the dark until the match was over.
Not surprisingly, Messi’s no show was met with widespread anger from disgruntled fans, many of whom had bought tickets to what was the most expensive football match in the city’s history simply in expectation he would play.
As the match progressed and it became clear the Argentine star was not going to play, loud boos were heard from the crowd.
The fallout from Messi’s “snub” as it was termed by many fans, was massive with Chinese fans accusing Messi of “disrespecting” China (in particular as Messi participated in a similar exhibition match in Japan just 3 days later).
This prompted a mini-diplomatic incident between China and Argentina, with various governmental officials and media weighing in, ultimately resulting in Messi issuing a 2-minute public apology video on the Chinese social media platform Weibo.
Faced with the public pressure from both fans and the Hong Kong government, the organizer Tatler Asia ultimately agreed to withdraw its application for government funding, and to issue substantial refunds to ticket holders.
The city’s reputation also took a further hit, with Hong Kong missing out on Taylor Swift’s Eras tour in South East Asia (SEA) later that year, amidst reports Singapore had secured an exclusive deal with Swift’s entourage for Singapore to host her stop in the region.
With Manchester United, confirmed to play in May this year, the city is keen to avoid another “Messi” mess.
Implications of the Manchester United v Hong Kong Exhibition Match
As a globally famous football club, Manchester United is not short of international stars like captain Bruno Fernandes; and, even if the publicity material doesn’t expressly say so, fans will have a reasonable expectation he will turn out on the day, hich will consequently have a bearing on a decision to buy tickets.
These expectations will only have been further raised by social media and other statements from officials. Christoffer Komen, Manchester United’s director of tours, told a recent press conference:
“…we only need to release our players to their national teams at the start of June, and you can be confident [about seeing] our stars… Led by our captain Bruno [Fernandes], we have also got other players lined up to join us, such as [Alejandro] Garnacho, Casemiro...”
Given how fervent fans can be, particularly about their favourite stars, any no-shows are likely to create a great deal of frustration, although as a legal precept, frustration might be hard to establish.
Hong Kong follows the British definition of frustration of contract, set by Lord Radcliffe in Davis Contractors v Fareham Urban District Council [1956] AC 696 as:
“…without fault of either party a contractual obligation has become incapable of being performed because the circumstances in which performance is called for would render it a thing radically different from that which was undertaken by the contract.”
Tickets are sold to watch the match, irrespective of the absence or otherwise of any star players, so no-shows would not constitute an element which would render the exhibition match entirely different from what was envisioned under the relevant contracts.
Irrespective of which players are fielded, as long as there are 11 of them, it is still a Manchester United team playing the city’s representative side.
Frustrating as it might be for the fans who bought the tickets hoping to see their favourite stars perform, any relevant contract between Manchester United and the event organizers in Hong Kong is unlikely to be seen as frustrated if a different 11 turn up, and certainly not enough to warrant refunds and/or cancellations.
Nevertheless, given the Inter Miami debacle, it would be good practice for Manchester United to disclose in advance which of its stars will appear as soon as it knows of substantial changes in playing status, thereby managing fan expectations and allowing the organizers to take remedial steps.
Nobody wants to see another Messi-style absence leaving angry and disappointed fans in its wake. That would not be good for the reputations of either Manchester United or Hong Kong, not to mention any absent stars themselves.
For further information, please contact:
Anthony Leung, Partner, Haldanes
anthony.leung@haldanes.com
