FC Barcelona revealed as key contributor to hometown economy

Although it is on its own a leading European tourist destination to which visitors from all over the world flock in droves, it would be remiss not to suggest that FC Barcelona as a club has a huge influence on popularity. from his hometown.

Boasting 351 million social media users worldwide, making it an industry leader, ‘Culés’, as the club’s fans are called, often descend on the Catalan capital for the sole purpose of attending a game while others, whether football enthusiasts and sportsmen or not, are known to make sure their itinerary includes a trip to Camp Nou.

Now, thanks to a PwC report presented on Wednesday morning, the Blaugrana’s economic impact on the Spanish metropolis has turned out to translate into nearly $ 1.3 billion of its GDP (1.46%), 19,500 jobs and tax revenues of nearly $ 400 million. .

These figures are taken from the 2018/2019 season and, as the club itself has stated on its official website, show that the FCB continues to be “one of the most dynamic and multifaceted entities that makes the difference. in various sectors of the economy such as tourism, hotel management, transport and media â€, while contributing“ significantly to the city of Barcelona â€.

This is the first study of its kind since Deloitte did similar work in connection with the 2014/2015 campaign, in which Barca won the treble. Then it was found that the club’s impact was $ 988 million, so the comparison between the two terms mentioned showing an increase of 31% while the impact on employment increased by 17%, passing 16,620 jobs to the mentioned figure of 19,451.

According to the official post, PwC’s methodology for producing its findings for 2018/2019 included “both a direct impact (created directly by the club and its foundation in GDP through personal expenses, margins and taxes, income by commercial activity and jobs for the two institutions), indirect impact (expenditure by service providers and investments made by the club and its foundation) and collateral impact (fans on match day, income generated by the media, income generated by individual subscribers to pay TV, eSports and sports betting platforms).

Speaking on the presentation and its data after their unveiling, the president of FC Barcelona said: “Barça is today the number one sports brand in the world. We are a deeply local institution but at the same time global [which] as you have seen, represents 1.5% of the GDP of the city of Barcelona and contributes to the creation of nearly 19,500 jobs in the region.