Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U said yesterday that the government is still carrying out a study on the feasibility of building a sports park, i.e., a park featuring various sporting facilities, on the plot of land where the former greyhound racetrack (Yat Yuen Canidrome) is located.
The policy secretary said that after completing the feasibility study, the government expects to be able to start the project’s construction design in the next quarter.
Ao Ieong made the remarks when replying to lawmakers’ oral interpellations during a plenary session in the legislature’s hemicycle.
The government announced basic details of the planned project in July last year.
The government has not yet come up with the preliminary budget of the ex-Canidrome’s redevelopment project.
The ex-Canidrome plot in Fai Chi Kei covers an area of around 40,000 square metres. The government has said that the sports park project would have a gross construction area of about 74,000 square metres.
Meanwhile, Ao Ieong also reaffirmed that the government is looking for an open-air venue suitable for hosting concerts with a capacity for tens of thousands of spectators. She said that an open space near Macau Tower where an outdoor concert was held last year is one of the choices that the government is considering, adding that the area has a capacity of 20,000 to 30,000 spectators.
Ao Ieong also reaffirmed that the Macau East Asian Games Dome in Cotai is an indoor venue with a capacity of only 7,000 spectators because of which it is not suitable for hosting large-scale concerts.
The policy secretary also underlined that the government has been working on digital transformation projects at cultural heritage facilities, adding that 10 tourist attractions in the UNESCO World Heritage-protected Historic Centre of Macau are currently covered by online virtual reality (VR) tours. She said that more and more tourist attractions there will also have online VR tours in the near future.
This artist’s rendition released by the government in July shows the design of the sports park to be constructed on the former greyhound racetrack in Fai Chi Kei.
