In order to host the America’s Cup, as in other major sporting events, at least two essential elements must be ensured: on the one hand, having demanding infrastructures, in this case ports, and, on the other, covering the risk the cost of organizing the event. Barcelona was able to formulate a successful offer that gave the correct response to these two elements, and it did so in a different way from its competing cities.
For a port to have the necessary infrastructure to house the six teams that will participate in this edition is practically impossible. Either because this infrastructure simply does not exist, or because even though it does exist, other activities are carried out on it. For this reason, the proposals, with some frequency, are based on building expensive infrastructures, linked to complex urban transformations that are more chimerical than necessary. Faced with this stubborn reality, public administrations are increasingly reluctant to promote these risky transformation processes, since, in addition, they are monitored by a society that is increasingly demanding in cost-benefit analysis.
Barcelona was different. From the outset, the port only had space for a single piece of equipment, the rest (up to six) had to be obtained with the collaboration and complicity between the Port and its private operators. These have made it possible to house four more teams in their own facilities; the spaces temporarily ceded will be recovered for their usual activity once the Copa del América concludes. For the sixth and last base, the process of moving part of the port commercial activity to the south has had to be accelerated, as was already provided for in the agreements between Barcelona City Council and the Port in 2018, although its advance It has not been free of difficulties, sacrifices and costs for the companies affected.
Collaboration between the public sector, which basically leads, plans and manages, and the private sector, with companies that have assumed the capacity to make such an important event possible, has been the key to presenting the initial offer and especially to allowing a location of the six teams very well distributed throughout the length and breadth of Port Vell.
On the other hand, the assignment of Barcelona as the venue has made it necessary to speed up a set of investments that were pending, but which for various reasons had not yet materialized. There are a total of twenty actions with a global investment volume of around 120 million euros, of which more than half come, here too, from the private sector. All the interventions, except one, were already planned, but the assignment as the venue has been the common catalyst that has forced all parties to align for its definitive impulse. The only ex novo project is the America’s Cup Experience, which in turn has been built by renovating and taking advantage of the old Imax cinema facilities that were about to be demolished.
Regarding the assumption of financial commitments to minimize the risk of organizing the event, Barcelona is also different. And better. That public administrations agree to assume part of the economic cost of a major sporting event is normal. Their work to promote the economy or the promotion of visibility and projection, whether of the city or the country, should be one of their objectives, always without prejudice to considering the recovery of contributions via tax collection. But, this time, things were different, the public contributions were complemented by guarantees from a group of natural persons who, with their money, proceeded to financially guarantee the holding of the event. The vast majority of these people will not obtain any direct benefit from the celebration, but they felt committed to the general interest.
Communion between administrations, prudent management of public resources, mainly reflected in the non-execution of new infrastructures, and the sharing of risks and burdens between different sectors are the elements that define this 37th edition of the America’s Cup and They mark a model for the future that is much more collaborative and efficient.
