PR disaster raises traps on mega events

It was a total rip-off, leaving thousands first heartbroken, then angry. And who can blame them after having paid twice as much for their tickets as their Japanese counterparts and more than HK$500 for a bucket of KFC chicken pieces at Hong Kong Stadium on Sunday?

The huge public relations disaster caused by football legend Lionel Messi's no-show at Inter Miami's match against the Hong Kong team will continue to trouble many.

They include the city's top official in charge of culture, sports and tourism; the Hong Kong Football Association; and Tatler Asia, the event organizer.

And no matter how hard they try to distance themselves, they are shackled to a public relations nightmare.

It was suggested that Messi had a minor injury and his coach wanted to keep him on the bench to save him for more serious matches in the upcoming football season.

A sports writer at Britain's Daily Express offered more details, saying Messi suffered from a hamstring strain prior to a game in Saudi Arabia that was played a few days before the Hong Kong stop.

But even if Messi were given the benefit of the doubt, this should not have prevented him from taking a stroll around the pitch to wave to fans or picking up the microphone to speak to them - some fans had come from as far as the city of Karamay in Xinjiang - during the half-time break.

Had he done so, the football star would have helped resolve the dilemma that is now embarrassing so many people involved in pulling off this much-anticipated event.

But he did not - was he asked and just refused to do so?

David Beckham, the co-owner of Inter Miami, was forced to mingle with local celebrities and thank a disgruntled crowd that was booing and demanding a refund.

Why did Messi sit out the match with such a stony face?

Unless he speaks up, one can only speculate. Indeed, it was speculated that he had a disagreement with Beckham over the Asian tour that initially did not include Hong Kong.

With the help of Tatler Asia - an event organizer known for having a network of global celebrities, but that does not specialize in organizing sports events - helped secure Beckham's agreement to kick off the tour in Hong Kong.

Perhaps it was also because of this that fans on Sunday had to pay twice as much as the Japanese.

Will Messi recover enough to play a friendly match in Kobe, Japan? Will he break his silence there?

These are open questions.

What can be learned from this massive fiasco is that mega events can be more sophisticated than thought to organize, especially when they are pinned on individual celebrities.

The Inter Miami-vs-Hong Kong match had been treated as a celebrity event rather than a sports one.

The government pledged last month to host more than 80 mega events in the first half of 2024.

The massive PR disaster at Hong Kong Stadium has offered a valuable lesson: it can be easier said than done to organize a truly mega event.

In hindsight, it may be a blessing that singer Taylor Swift is skipping Hong Kong from her ongoing global Eras Tour.