Champions final eight in Portugal with economic impact of €50.4M

A report by the Portuguese Institute of Administration and Marketing (IPAM) estimated the economic impact of the final eight of the football Champions League, which will take place in August in Lisbon, at 50.4 million euros.

According to the report of the economic and media impact of the final eight of the competition, which will take place, in an unprecedented format, in Lisbon from 12 to 23 August, almost half (49%) of the impact will “benefit meals” at home and away from home.

Then accommodation, with longer stays due to the concentrated model of the final phase, contributes to 13% of the impact, trips to 9%, tourist activities receive 5%, with the remaining percentages divided between advertising activities, events, shopping and other commercial activities.

IPAM estimated the presence of 16,000 fans without tickets and 3,300 visitors in the final, a number that includes the teams’ entourage, four hundred journalists, more than a thousand support staff and another thousand UEFA guests, among other production and broadcasting professionals.

University professor and sports marketing specialist Daniel Sá, who coordinated IPAM’s study, told Lusa that this report was much more difficult to do than usual because it was the first without an audience, a dimension with enormous weight, as well as the difficulty in predicting social behaviour with a pandemic, from the terraces to the areas created around the stadiums to attract fans.

The university lecturer recalled previous reports by IPAM, such as Lisbon2014, which predicted 46 million euros, or Madrid, analysed by Turismo de Madrid, which mentioned 66 million euros, to highlight a figure that does not escape previous finals, even though it includes six other games in a context where the normal flow of supporters is discouraged.

Even so, Daniel Sá said that the most important impact is the media because Portugal and Lisbon will be in the spotlight of the world for 12 days, the time of the final eight.

“The 50 million are very important, but they will not save our economy. The biggest impact, in our opinion, is the media,” he said, pointing to the numbers of 2019 final, which generated an audience of 400 million viewers around the world, and more than a billion related interactions on social media.

In 2019, the final between Liverpool and Tottenham, which was won by Liverpool, obtained digital performance records, IPAM said, and it is this feature that makes this event an opportunity for the Portuguese capital.

“In a pandemic context, where economies want to regain confidence and where Portugal has tourism as a decisive pillar of its GDP, this is the best promotion campaign and confidence of Portugal in the whole world,” said the report coordinator.

The UEFA Executive Committee has decided that Lisbon will be the stage for the conclusion of the 2019/20 edition of the Champions League, with an unprecedented final eight, in qualifying with just one match, at the Benfica and Sporting stadiums between 12 and 23 August.