Hong Kong Coliseum, commonly known as the Hung Hom Coliseum, is a multi-purpose indoor arena, in

Hung Hom Bay Hung Hom Bay was a bay in Victoria Harbour, between Tsim Sha Tsui and Hung Hom in the southeast of Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong. Since 1994, parts of the bay were reclaimed, and by 2019 it had been completely extinguished. All of present-da ...

, Kowloon, Hong Kong near

Hung Hom station Hung Hom () is a railway station in Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is an interchange station between the and the domestic services of the MTR network, as well as the southern terminus of cross-border through-trains to mainland China ...

. It is in

Yau Tsim Mong District Yau Tsim Mong District is one of 18 districts of Hong Kong, located on the western part of Kowloon Peninsula. It is the core urban area of Kowloon. The district has the second highest population density of all districts, at . The 2016 By ...

. It was built by the

Urban Council The Urban Council (UrbCo) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon (including New Kowloon). These services were provided by the council's executive arm, the Urban Servic ...

and inaugurated on 27 April 1983. The opening of the stadium coincided with the 100th anniversary of the Urban Council. The coliseum has 12,500 seats, which is the second largest among indoor facilities in Hong Kong, only behind the 2005-opened

AsiaWorld–Arena AsiaWorld–Arena (, also Hall 1 of AsiaWorld–Expo) is the largest indoor seated performance venue in Hong Kong. It has a total floor area of , a maximum capacity of 14,000 seats/16,000 standing+seats and high ceiling clearance of 19 metres. ...

. It is now managed by the

Leisure and Cultural Service Department The Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD), is a department in the Government of Hong Kong. It reports to the Culture, Sports & Tourism Bureau, headed by the Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism. It provides leisure and cultura ...

of the Hong Kong Government.

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 Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

cement flooring. During performances, 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 Futsal is a football-based game played on a hard court smaller than a football pitch, and mainly indoors. It has similarities to five-a-side football and indoor football. Futsal is played between two teams of five players each, one of whom is ...

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players p ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

and

ice-skating Ice skating is the self-propulsion and gliding of a person across an ice surface, using metal-bladed ice skates. People skate for various reasons, including recreation (fun), exercise, competitive sports, and commuting. Ice skating may be perf ...

. 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 A concert is a live music performance in front of an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, choir, or band. Concerts are held in a wide variet ...

and other concert-like performances that requires an elevated stage and good PA (public address) 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.

Events

Even though its formal name in Chinese roughly translates to "Sports Arena", the

venue Venue is the location at which an event takes place. It may refer to: Locations * Venue (law), the place a case is heard * Financial trading venue, a place or system where financial transactions can occur * Music venue, place used for a concer ...

often serves as a concert venue for popular singers. In addition, some

universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

rent it every year for

congregation A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship. Congregation may also refer to: * Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administr ...

. Some performances like

also choose Hong Kong Coliseum as their stages. It was also used every year from 1991 to 2010 to hold the

Miss Hong Kong Pageant The Miss Hong Kong Pageant (), or Miss HK () for short, is an annual beauty pageant organised by local Hong Kong television station, TVB. The pageant was established in 1946, and acquired by TVB in 1973. The current Miss Hong Kong is Denice Lam ...

, except for 2008. It also hosts a part of the FIVB Volleyball Women's Nations League (before:

FIVB World Grand Prix The FIVB Volleyball World Grand Prix was an annual women's volleyball competition created in 1993. The men's version of the competition was called World League. This event should not be confused with the other international volleyball competitio ...

) for volleyball every year.

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

played the two final dates of his 1983

Serious Moonlight Tour The Serious Moonlight Tour was a worldwide concert tour by English musician David Bowie, launched in May 1983 in support of his album '' Let's Dance'' (1983). The tour opened at the Vorst Forest Nationaal, Brussels, on 18 May 1983 and ended in ...

at the venue. The final date - December 8 - was the third anniversary of John Lennon's death and to signify that, Bowie played Lennon's "

Imagine Imagine may refer to: * Imagination Music Albums * ''Imagine'' (Armin van Buuren album), 2008 * ''Imagine'' (Eva Cassidy album), 2002 * ''Imagine'' (Janice Vidal album), 2012 * ''Imagine'' (John Lennon album), 1971 ** ''Imagine: John Lennon' ...

". On 3 June 2001, Irish vocal pop band

Westlife Westlife is an Irish pop vocal group formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1998. The group currently consists of members Shane Filan, Mark Feehily, Kian Egan, and Nicky Byrne. Brian McFadden was a member, until he left in 2004. The group temporarily di ...

held a concert for their

Where Dreams Come True Tour The Where Dreams Come True Tour was the second concert tour by Irish boy band Westlife seen by 600,000 fans making £12,000,000, in support of their second studio album, '' Coast to Coast''. The tour was nicknamed "The No Stools Tour" due to the ...

supporting their album '' Coast to Coast''. In November 1988 it was a venue for three days (18-20th) of

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed " The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston i ...

Moment of Truth World Tour The Moment of Truth World Tour was the second worldwide tour by American recording artist Whitney Houston and supported her ''multi-platinum'' hit album '' Whitney''. The trek started on July 4, 1987 in North America and continued overseas during ...

performance. Other performers at the Coliseum in the late eighties/early ninety's included Stevie Wonder, Phil Collins, and Kylie Minogue.

Venue for 2009 East Asian Games

The Hong Kong Coliseum was one of the venues for the 5th

East Asian Games The East Asian Games was a multi-sport event organized by the East Asian Games Association (EAGA) and held every four years from 1993 to 2013. Among those who competed included athletes from East Asian countries and territories of the Olympic ...

that was hosted in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

in 2009.

Accident

On 28 July 2022, during a concert by local boy band,

Mirror A mirror or looking glass is an object that reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the direction of the im ...

, a movable elevated giant TV screen fell from the ceiling of the venue and landed directly on a dancer's head, and further collapsing onto another dancer. Both dancers were sent to hospital, with one being in serious condition in the ICU while the other being stable. All remaining concerts had to be cancelled and investigations were called by the government.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Landmarks in Hong Kong Hung Hom Indoor arenas in Hong Kong Music venues in Hong Kong Volleyball venues in China Badminton venues Inverted pyramids Pyramids in China Taekwondo venues Sports venues completed in 1981