I surely travel a lot for my sport and my kid activities. I prefer to travel than to stay home watching video games. It's a choice.
And $ is not an issue (even to the more modest) as there are pitches/tracks/swimming pool etc all over HK for very cheap/zero prices.
-> I go to the Aberdeen Track on Tuesday nights. 7pm, it's open, it's free and plenty of kids and parents training there. am sure plenty of other examples all over HK
Of course if your stuff is Ice Hockey or Ice Skating or Archery it's a bit different...but how many people in HK are doing archery??
PS: as a kid in Europe, my parents used to drive the three of us for our activities the whole of Saturday....again it's a choice. They thought sport was important to our development so that invested time in it.
PS2: some of my colleagues (local) need to hire a PERSONAL coach for 8 and 10 years old to teach them running and complain that it is far and expensive...seriously...unless your kids is the next Usain Bolt, register him to a running club for a small fee and he will get plenty of good advices etc etc,
I don't see the connection between the Government spending some money on an esports event and internet addiction.
Agree its a lifestyle choice. HK is pretty small, and actually with decent sports facilities in many places. I've seen primary school kids take the MTR by themselves, and even taxis are not that expensive (just don't eat out once a week would save the $200-300 for a taxi fare).
i grew up in a small village in UK and did athletics and the nearest sports centre with running track, hurdles equipment etc. was in a bigger town 10 miles away. Back then buses stopped operating at 5:00pm, so i went there after school (in the bigger town), and had to pay 10 pounds for a taxi back home which was a lot about 15 years ago.
where there's a will, there's a way.
I think it was worse when there were scalpers who made profit by selling on pitch bookings. But recently they put measures in place to make it more difficult so should be better.
And I think it is a problem based on peak times. Everyone wants to play in the evening or weekends, but during the weekdays, they may be empty, so I guess they have to make a choice there.
I remember being in HK for the summer school holidays, and me and my friends could play football on a pitch from about 10am to 4pm with nobody else. It was hot as hell and you have to make sure you rest and get water, but its possible.