In a few hours the biggest sports competition ever hosted by Romania, the Europa League soccer final is due to start; it will be the first major test the local market will go through in order to prove it can organize such an event. The stake is huge for Romania, which has already spent EUR200 million to build a 55,000-seat stadium, the National Arena, but revenue from this event barely reaches EUR30 million.
The tickets are sold out, the Spanish fans have already taken Bucharest’s Old Town by storm, hotel rooms are already rented, beer sellers are happy but all these can only generate several tens of millions of euros, because the Spanish tourists are thrifty people hurt by the crisis, coming from an economy where one in two young people cannot find a job.
Regardless of how bad things are in Spain, people still take the siesta and then move to fiesta, crisis or no crisis, as a young Athletic Bilbao supporter said on Tuesday. The appetite for fiesta of the about 30,000 Spanish people expected in Bucharest is what all the local tourism companies rely on.
Although Romania has made a tremendous effort to be able organize such a competition, the chances of the money flowing back into the economy over the coming years greatly depend on how the final goes on Wednesday evening.
In all, 45 charter flights have been confirmed for landing on the Otopeni Airport, the 11,000 rooms in hotels in Bucharest have almost all been taken, bars and restaurants in the Old Town put up flags and translated their offers into Spanish to attract those who will participate in what can be called “Bucharest’s Olympic Games”.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)