Hong Kong Coliseum

Hong Kong Coliseum (zh-ts|t=香港體育館|s=香港体育馆; informally, 紅磡體育館, 香港紅磡體育館, 紅館) is a major multi-purpose indoor arena in Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was built by Urban Council and inaugurated on 27th April, 1983. It is now managed by Leisure and Cultural Service Department of Hong Kong Government. The coliseum has 12,500 seats, which is the second largest among the same kind of indoor facilities in Hong Kong, only behind the newly built, AsiaWorld Arena.

Facilities

The Hong Kong Coliseum consists of a big arena and a number of conference rooms.

Arena

The arena is rectangular with sides 41m each, with a concrete cement flooring.

At times of performance, the floor may be covered with different overmounted floorings, such as demountable wooden flooring or various rubberized roll-outs, to facilitate the set-up of sporting equipment and the playing of different sporting activities such as futsal, badminton, basketball, volleyball and ice-skating.

Moreover, the floor can hold strong pressures up to 1,800 kg/m², which cannot even be done by industrial buildings. This facilitates the set up of stages, platforms and sound equipments during concerts and other concert-like performances that requires an elevated stage and good PA systems.

Different technical equipments and a 4-side colour television projection system are also present to project the performer's image onto a screen, so that audience sitting around the rear side of the stadium can also see clearly.

Conference Rooms

The Hong Kong Coliseum offers both open and sheltered areas for holding conventions and conferences. The demountable open stage provides the arena with an excellent forum for public assemblies as well as staging live television broadcasts of opening ceremonies.

Reception Room

The reception room acts as an assistant facility for hirers of the arena and the conference rooms to accommodate visiting VIPs. The room can hold 60 persons.

Purposes

Although its Chinese name relates to "sport" or "physical education" ("體育" as in "香港體育館"), the venue is not limited to sport events. It is often the performance venue of top popular singers. Some universities rent it every year for congregation. Some performances like ice-skating also choose Hong Kong Coliseum as their stages.

Venue for 2009 East Asian Games

To organize the 5th East Asian Games that will be hosted in Hong Kong in 2009, Hong Kong Coliseum will be one of the venue of HKEAG.

External links

* [http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Entertainment/Stadia/HKC/index.html Official website of Hong Kong Coliseum]