Barcelona captures the 2024 Copa América de Vela with 70 million

Barcelona officially presented this Tuesday its election as venue for the America’s Cup of Sailing in 2024after convincing the organizers with a candidature of 70 million euros of public-private contribution with whom you expect a local economic impact of 1,000 million.

The proposal, worked against the clock in three months after detecting the “opportunity” of being the host city, has had as great supporter of the private sector, through the Barcelona Global association and businessmen who have put up to 25 million to endorse the candidacy, as explained by the first deputy mayor of Barcelona, ​​Jaume Collboni. Among them is the family of the Puig perfumery group, traditionally involved in the sponsorship and organization of sailing competitions.

The Copa América is the third most followed sporting event in the world, after the Olympic Games and the World Cup, with 940 million spectators in its last edition, and in its 37th edition, in Barcelona, ​​it will include regattas for women and young people, in addition to technological innovations to improve performance and reduce the environmental impact of navigation.

Everything has been so hasty that the Government’s support has not yet been defined, but a involvement similar to that received by the Mobile World Congress (MWC)for which the State, the Generalitat and the City Council contribute five million euros per administration each year.

The mayor of Barcelona, ​​Ada Colau, explained this Tuesday that this will also be the annual figure that the consistory will allocate to the Copa América, for two years, until the event is held, in addition to making the municipal services available so that the event be a success and a reference in terms of innovation, inclusion and sustainability.

The Port of Barcelona will adapt the current infrastructure and will advance planned investments to accommodate the teams in the docks closest to the city, with the aim of making the America’s Cup accessible to citizens. There will not be an “extraordinary” budget in this sense, according to its president, Damià Calvet.

Emirates Team New Zealand was the winning team of the last edition of the Copa América, held in Auckland (New Zealand) in 2021, and therefore has the organizing rights for the 37th edition.

According to the organizers, Barcelona has been selected for the quality of its port facilitiesthe diversity of spaces dedicated to competition, its experience in hosting major sporting events, its love of water sports and its educational and leisure activities. It competed with cities in Ireland and Saudi Arabia, and in Spain also Malaga he aspired to attract the event.