World Snooker Tour: Hong Kong in line to host first ranking event at Kai Tak Sports Park

Tournament will be held in January or March in 2025 in a new 10,000-seat venue, according to a source

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The last international event hosted by the HKBSCC was the Hong Kong Masters exhibition event in 2022, which saw Ronnie O’Sullivan beat Marco Fu 6-4 in the final at the Hong Kong Coliseum. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Published: 6:30pm, 5 Jul 2024Updated: 8:45am, 6 Jul 2024

Hong Kong could host its first World Snooker Tour (WST) ranking tournament early next year, with the 10,000-seater indoor sports centre at Kai Tak Sports Park listed as the intended venue.

The World Grand Prix Hong Kong would attract the game’s top 32 players, but officials said a small number of wild cards could be made available for local players such as Marco Fu Ka-chun, Ng On-yee and Cheung Ka-wai.

There is no direct mention of the tournament on the 2024-25 season calendar on the WST’s official website, but a source with knowledge of the development said an event called the World Open is listed as running in an unknown city in China from March 3 to 9 – which could be read as the initial dates for the event in Hong Kong.

The source also said that, pending the venue’s availability, the World Grand Prix could be held in either January or March.

Any World Snooker Tour event could have wild cards available for local players such as Ng On-yee (left) and Marco Fu Ka-chun. Photo: Jonathan Wong

“It depends on the availability of the WST calendar, as well as Kai Tak,” the source said. “I understand that there are some blackout dates requested by the government for testing and National Games-related purposes.”