A letter from Mr. Charles Chu (朱福榮先生)
Head (Competition Events),
2009 East Asian Games (Hong Kong) Limited
When the curtains fell after the Badminton Competitions of the 5th East Asian Games were completed in the late afternoon on 13 December 2009, all 262 sports competition events of the 22 sports had been successfully and smoothly completed. As the Head of the Competition Events Division of the EAG Company, I am extremely pleased with hard work and the devotion of all the staff in the Competition Events Division, in particular the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) Staff working for the EAG Company, all the Assistant Events Officers (AEOs) and their assistants, the Senior Events Assistants (SEAs), who were tasked to take care of all 22 sports competitions. Their efforts have to be highly commended. They have demonstrated great enthusiasm and devotion in carrying out the preparation work together with the relevant National Sports Associations and the Asian Sports Federations. I strongly feel that the valuable experience all these staff have gained in organizing the competition should be maintained as a legacy of the Games and should be shared with the future event organizers. In fact, there are strong needs for nurturing sufficient skilful full-time, part-time and temporary staff to serve the annual major sports events in Hong Kong such as the Rugby Sevens, the Marathon, the Chinese New Year Cup football matches, the Hong Kong Ladies Tennis Classics, the Hong Kong Squash Open, the Hong Kong Golf Open, the FIVB World Grand Prix (Hong Kong) station of Women's Volleyball, and the International Dragon Boat Races, etc. With the growing demands for more high level sports events and the efforts put up by the Major Sports Events Committee of the Sports Commission, there will certainly be a great increase of major sports events in the pipeline. The recent increase of the Arts and Sports Development Fund by the Government will certainly encourage the National Sports Associations in organizing more major sports events in the future. The problem facing us now is the lack of sufficient capable sports event organizers in Hong Kong.
The big question is "Who will be taking up this task in providing the necessary training for these Sports Event Organizers?" A university degree in this particular field would be attractive for our next generation of sports and recreation managers to be more capable to organize these major events. Therefore, I have a strong wish that a university will take the lead in cultivating more sports events organizers in the near future. A degree programme incorporating sport-related disciplines in addition to the main core training in organizing major sports events can help achieve the purpose. These sport-related disciplines could include Sports Marketing, Sports Economics, Sports Journalism, and Sports Administration issues such as Budgeting, Accounting, Auditing and Procurement, Sport and the Law, etc.
It is hoped that the Chinese University of Hong Kong, already equipped with sufficient quality teaching staff, will consider establishing the first ever degree programme in this particular field in Hong Kong so that more competent sports events organizers could be developed locally in Hong Kong to meet the growing demands. May Hong Kong eventually become a true Sports Events Capital in East Asia in the near future!
