Official Venue List for the 2009 East Asian Games with Sport Allocations

The official 2009 East Asian Games venue list maps 22 sports and both ceremonies across 19 sites. Most were existing Hong Kong facilities upgraded with competition-grade overlay, not new permanent construction. Two venues were purpose-built. The rest received fit-out that was stripped after the closing ceremony.

Current operators, public access hours, and post-Games names differ from what was in place during December 2009. Check with the Leisure and Cultural Services Department or the private operator before visiting any of these sites today.

The 2009 venue plan was structured around a hub of existing sports infrastructure concentrated on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground, purpose-built at a cost carried by the government capital works budget, anchored the athletics programme and the opening ceremony. Temporary seating pushed capacity beyond its permanent stands for the ceremony. Siu Sai Wan Sports Ground on Hong Kong Island's eastern shore handled secondary athletics and football matches. It was an existing facility, not a new build.

Indoor Venues and Their Sports

Hong Kong Coliseum in Hung Hom hosted the volleyball finals and the closing ceremony. It was the largest indoor venue in the plan, though the accreditation zone and media positions reduced usable seats. Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Wan Chai held badminton and table tennis; its smaller bowl suited racquet sports where proximity to the court matters more than total capacity. Kowloon Park Swimming Pool, an existing aquatics centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, was upgraded for swimming and diving events. The upgrade included temporary starting blocks, timing systems, and a media tribune that was removed after the Games.

Temporary Venues in Public Space

Victoria Park hosted two sports on temporary courts: beach volleyball and street basketball. Sand was trucked in for the volleyball court and removed afterward. The basketball court used a temporary surface laid over existing hardstanding. These were overlay-only venues with no permanent legacy beyond the fact that the park had demonstrated it could host international competition. The post-Games name of the park remained unchanged.

The EAGOC venue plan used the facility names current in 2009. Several of those names have since changed. Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground was known during the bid and construction phase as Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground, and that name stuck. Confusion arises because Hong Kong Stadium in So Kon Po is sometimes called "the main stadium" in casual references, but it was not part of the Games. Siu Sai Wan Sports Ground retains its original name, though its capacity and layout have been altered by subsequent renovations.

Queen Elizabeth Stadium and Hong Kong Coliseum have kept their names. Kowloon Park Swimming Pool is still Kowloon Park Swimming Pool. What changed was the operational context: the temporary overlay, the branding, the accreditation zones, and the security perimeters that defined each venue during the Games were dismantled within weeks of the closing ceremony. A visitor to these sites in 2026 sees the permanent facility, not the competition venue as it was configured in December 2009. Do not rely on 2009 venue photographs to navigate the site today.

The complete East Asian Games Hong Kong site list covered 19 competition and ceremony sites. Beyond the main venues already described, the plan included Hong Kong Sports Institute, which served as the athletes' village and a training venue. No dedicated Olympic Village was built; the HKSI's existing residential blocks, dining halls, and medical facilities were adapted for the nine delegations. This was a cost-saving measure that distinguished the 2009 Games from the purpose-built villages of Olympic and Asian Games editions.

Remaining Venues and Overlay Packages

The remaining venues filled out the 22-sport programme: cycling took place on a temporary road circuit, cue sports used a convention centre space, bowling used an existing commercial alley, and the combat sports (judo, taekwondo, wushu) were spread across secondary indoor halls. Each venue had a defined accreditation zone, a media workroom, and a sport-specific overlay package that was tendered separately by the EAGOC. The venue capacities published in the official programme were gross capacities; net capacity after media, VIP, and athlete seating allocations was typically 15 to 20 percent lower.

Legacy and What Remains

Distinguish permanent venues from temporary installations when evaluating legacy. Tseung Kwan O Sports Ground remains in regular use. Victoria Park's beach volleyball court was dismantled and the sand removed; no trace of the competition venue remains. Kowloon Park Swimming Pool reverted to its pre-Games configuration. The ceremony sites (the opening at Tseung Kwan O and the closing at the Coliseum) were one-night configurations with elaborate staging, lighting, and sound systems that existed for hours, not days. Any post-Games assessment of venue utilisation must separate the permanent facilities, which can be measured by current booking data, from the temporary ones, which left no operational footprint.