Barcelona City Council is hunting and capturing major international sporting events, one of the battlefronts for the city’s global projection for the coming years. The municipal government presided over by the socialist Jaume Collboni, through the Council of Sports, in which the socialist David Escudé remains, has a list of top-level competitions in hand and has begun to test the options of managing to organize the bear. And in the face of the Generalitat’s hesitations, for example regarding the Ryder Cup golf candidacy for 2031, the Barcelona Consistory is tying up the institutional support of the State.
Escudé met yesterday in Madrid with the Secretary of State and president of the Superior Sports Council (CSD), Víctor Francos, to deepen the preparations for the organization of the 2024 America’s Sailing Cup, as well as in the development of Barcelona’s bids for the World Athletics Championship, which the Catalan capital aspires to host in 2029, and the 2030 World Cup, which Spain, Portugal and Morocco aspire to organize jointly.
The City Council also wants to get involved in the candidacy of the Costa Brava for the Ryder Cup of golf in 2031, which will incorporate the name of Barcelona to increase its potential by taking advantage of the city’s projection in the world and its proven ability to organize major sporting events.
At the outset, the Superior Council of Sports allocates 18 million euros to organize next year’s America’s Cup through a nominative grant to the Barcelona Capital Nàutica AC24 Foundation to cover directly related expenses to the designation of Barcelona as the venue for the 37th edition of the test and the organization of the competition.
In his meeting with the president of the CSD, Escudé was interested in the candidacy for the 2030 World Cup. In the event that the joint option of Spain, Portugal and Morocco prospers, the new city government and its mayor, Jaume Collboni, want Barcelona to be one of theirs, repeating the experience of 1982, when the Camp Nou and the now-defunct Sarrià field hosted several matches of that championship.
At the end of the meeting, both Víctor Francos and David Escudé stressed the importance of the organization of international competitions for the impetus they represent for sports development, for their contribution to projecting the image of Barcelona and Spain and for the promotion of tourism and the industry linked to physical activity and sport, a sector that is experiencing strong growth.
The CSD gives full support to the Barcelona City Council in its desire for the city to host the World Athletics Championships. After several failed attempts, an opportunity is now opening up again for the 2029 edition, and the new municipal government is ready to bet hard on this letter.
On June 20, the Council of Ministers authorized the president of the CSD to sign on behalf of the Spanish Government the necessary agreements to comply with the commitments derived from the designation of Spain as the venue for this competition, which pits two teams made up of top golfers from the United States and Europe. This candidacy, however, is up in the air because the Generalitat rejects it if it is linked to an urban plan in the municipality of Caldes de Malavella (Selva) that includes a third golf course and the construction of 185 luxury houses.
The candidacy, on the other hand, has the support of Catalan economic agents, led by the employers’ association Foment del Treball, who expressed in a joint event on June 8 that they had asked the Government not to let the opportunity slip away that Catalonia host an event that, according to its promoters, would have an economic impact of more than 1.3 billion euros and create a thousand jobs”.
