Opinion | No need for nostalgia at the Hong Kong Sevens, where it’s onward and upward

You could spend all weekend chasing ghosts around this joint, if that’s your thing.

I mean, it would have certainly been easy to be a slave to nostalgia at Hong Kong Stadium because it was, after all, Saturday at the Sevens. This was still the single most festive day on the calendar in this town, and it’s been that way for well over forty years.

In fact, the old barn has never looked better; a strikingly scenic and bucolic gem nestled in a massive pile of clover and all of it framed by the ultra-modern towers of Causeway Bay with Hong Kong harbour floating off in the background.

But never mind that the guts of this stadium are woefully dated – analogue in a digital age – and that the event will be moving shortly to a new-fangled palace across the harbour in Kai Tak. On Saturday, the stadium simply makes for great television.

And frankly, Saturday is what it is all about. It’s even more poignant for those of us who are resolved to living in the moment – and not a moment too soon it seems.

Apparently, things have changed around this town. It’s become a place where nostalgia is only slightly less dangerous than the enterprise of opinion. But this is the Sevens, the apolitical come one and come all Sevens, so it shouldn’t be an issue. Even carefree hacks from days of yore aren’t doing nostalgia on Saturday.