37th America’s Cup economic impact

The University of Barcelona and the Barcelona Capital Nàutica Foundation (FBCN) released the outcome of their exhaustive post event economic impact study which revealed over €1 billion positive economic GDP return that the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup created for the host venue Barcelona, Catalonia.

• A €1.034 billion positive economic benefit for host venue of the 37th America’s Cup―Barcelona, Catalonia

• 1.8m visitors were counted over the 59 days across all free to attend event sites on and off the water including 460,819 unique attendees to Barcelona that came specifically to be part of the 37th America’s Cup event.

• The 37th America’s Cup created the equivalent of 12,872 jobs in Barcelona and generated €208.5 million in tax revenue.

• €1.367 billion total gross media brand value associated with all 37th America’s Cup events with a total TV audience of 954 million.

The Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup held in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain) in 2024 has added another iconic chapter to the 173-year history of the oldest trophy in international sport and the pinnacle of world sailing.

The event, which ran from August 22nd through to October 19th 2024, continued the positive upward trend of setting new standards of innovation, performance, attendance, audience and viewership growth and led the way with unprecedented global impact in women’s sailing.

America’s Cup Event CEO Grant Dalton highlighted just how significant the economic benefit has been for Barcelona, Catalonia and the America’s Cup. “It is hugely satisfying to see that the America’s Cup has made such a significantly positive economic contribution to the GDP of Barcelona and Catalonia.

“The €1.034 billion economic uplift is a reflection of the collaborative and positive approach the numerous host entities within Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain all brought to facilitate the best event possible for the Host Venue.

“It is also recognition of all the event staff and teams that made Barcelona their home and worked so tirelessly on the event, and of course all of the international media, the volunteers, fans and supporters that showed up in their many thousands from around the world.

“The 37th edition of the America’s Cup will always be remembered as one of the best yet and one that continued to build the commercial strength and audience of the widely recognized pinnacle event in sailing.”

Barcelona, one of the world’s most famous cities, was announced as the Host Venue of the 37th America’s Cup in March 2022 from which point America’s Cup Event (ACE) embarked on a huge task of creating a world class major sporting and entertainment event which not only achieved ambitious objectives for the America’s Cup but also for the various public and private entities that invested in the event.

The University of Barcelona measured in its independent post event measurement report, that the event created a positive economic benefit of €1.034 billion to the local economy and created the equivalent of 12,872 jobs in Barcelona. It also generated €208.5 million in tax revenue from the event.

From the outset of the event planning, ACE committed to supporting the local economy and community to the extent that 90% of the 380 different event suppliers and providers were locally based businesses.

Furthermore, one of the many success stories of the 37th America’s Cup was the Volunteer program called “TEAM B” which quickly became the beating heart of the entire event. With 2,300 volunteers, TEAM B was just one example of the positive engagement of the host city population, with 78% of the volunteers being local residents of Barcelona. With the event gaining an 8.8 out of 10 satisfaction score from the nearly 4,000 attendees surveyed during and after the event.

For ACE, an ongoing objective is always to grow the America’s Cup for the teams, the sport of sailing and the audiences that engage with the event. One of the attractions of Barcelona as a host venue was the multicultural population of locals and visitors that contribute to the city’s vibrant atmosphere, and who would be exposed to the amazing AC75s, the teams and the excitement of the event itself.

With the Race Village at the foot of Las Ramblas, one of the most visited streets in the world, and fan zones along the famous Barcelona beachfront which hosts millions of visitors each year, the opportunity to expose and engage new audiences was taken with 1.8 million visitors scanned and counted over 59 event days across 3 free event sites totaling 32,000sqm of on land event space and on water viewing options. This number included 460,819 unique attendees to Barcelona who came specifically to watch the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup.

It was these visitors that proved to be precisely the type of tourists the host city of Barcelona has been targeting in their ongoing tourism strategy to encourage quality longer stay tourist who contribute more economically over short stay high quantity tourists.

A big sector of positive economic contribution came from the 244 superyachts that attended the event in Barcelona injecting a spend of €35 million into the local economy.

Central to the success of any global sporting event is of course the competition, the drama and emotion, the ups and downs of which will all be revealed once the behind the scenes documentary, currently in post-production with Skydance is released.

Historically in the America’s Cup, “there is no second” just 1 winner, Emirates Team New Zealand who won the America’s Cup for the 3rd time in a row, beating INEOS Britannia 7-2 in the America’s Cup Match. The British may not have won, but they made history as the first British team to win the Louis Vuitton Cup and were clocked at the top speed of 55.6 knots or 102.97km/h during competition. The AC75 speeds regularly clocked over 54 knots or 100km/h.

The success of an event does not depend on just one team. There were a total 1,068 team members in Barcelona across 6 America’s Cup teams, 12 Puig Women’s, and 12 UniCredit Youth America’s Cup teams who made Barcelona home and contributed to the local economy and enjoyed everything that Catalonia had to offer.

What was universally seen as the beacon of light of not only the America’s Cup but women’s sailing was the first ever Puig Women’s America’s Cup. Won by Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli who emerged victorious from arguably the most talented concentration ever of the world’s 78 best female sailors, which included no less than 17 Olympic medalists.

The snowball of women in the America’s Cup has started rolling―watch it grow in the 38th America’s Cup.

Central to the success of the Puig Women’s and UniCredit Youth America’s Cup and the platform for the pathway to the America’s Cup was the new AC40 race boat. 11 AC40s were produced in the 37th America’s Cup cycle and the AC40 was named “World Sailing Boat of the Year” in 2023.

8 trophies were contested during the 37th America’s Cup―the “Auld Mug”―the America’s Cup itself, the Louis Vuitton Cup, the Puig Women’s America’s Cup, the UniCredit Youth America’s Cup, three preliminary regattas in Vilanova i la Geltrú, Jeddah, and Barcelona and of course the AC Sailing E-Sport World Championship which successfully brought sailing from the virtual world to reality.

With over 100,000+ downloads of the AC SAILING game, 8 Grand Finalists from 7 countries converged on Barcelona for a shot at becoming the first AC Sailing World Champion and the opportunity to go from ‘Gamer to Sailor’ where the two best gamers became actual AC40 sailors in just three days, by racing an AC40 in a match race against the NYYC American Magic Women’s America’s Cup team based on their skills playing the AC Sailing E-Sports game.

Innovation was not exclusive to the America’s Cup teams and their flying AC75s, it was a fundamental philosophy of the America’s Cup broadcast, to set new standards in television innovation by doing something that had never been done before―making the invisible visible developing WindSightIQTM with Capgemini, which allowed the TV audience be able to see the wind graphically, while feeding into an AC75 simulator to illustrate ghost boats sailing the optimal course live.

The broadcast also set new standards with 4K HDR production, and integration of AI tracking of yachts and AI powered graphics resulting in extensive integration of event sponsors into world feed.

It was a relentless schedule covering the 135 races for the broadcast TV production of the 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona in 2024 which included, 47 live production days, with 53 highlight shows and 64 VNRs (Video News Releases) produced which were created from 494 Media Mixed Zone interviews by ACTV in 8 languages (English, Italian, French, Spanish, and Catalan being most used).

All of this content distributed via 29 broadcaster contracts covering 209 broadcast territories, with a total of 239 broadcast territories covered by live/highlights on YouTube and Facebook.

This global exposure, all presenting the host city Barcelona, in 11,182 hours of global broadcast spotlight which created 43,186 hours of global broadcast brand exposure which, based on Nielsen data, equated to a total gross media exposure value of €1.367 billion for all of the brands, sponsors and host venue associated with the 37th America’s Cup.

The America’s Cup global audience continues its positive momentum with a total audience of 954 million viewers and a 37% growth in the dedicated audience as well as a 235% increase in overall social media views including 9.6 million hours of watch time on YouTube, making the 37th America’s Cup the most watched America’s Cup ever.

The media outputs from America’s Cup Media were relentless from covering the joint reconnaissance program on a daily basis from two years out, all the way through to the end of the Match with over 1,512 articles published consisting of 1.886 million words, and over 250,000 photo images downloaded from the America’s Cup photo library by media.

Sustainability, legacy and promoting Barcelona’s Blue Economy were always a significant priority as an outcome of hosting the 37th America’s Cup for both the hosts and ACE, which began with developing the AC37 Sustainability Strategy in collaboration with World Sailing and in line with the World Sailing Sustainability Agenda 2030.

The ambitious flagship sustainability project of the 37th America’s Cup was the introduction of hydrogen technology into the fleet of chase boats with 9 hydrogen powered foiling chase boats constructed and used across team and event operations, which eliminated 78,000 litres of fuel from on water operations which reduced 181,531kgs of CO2 emissions.

All teams as well as ACE implemented significant water conservation initiatives with 100% savings of drinkable water by washing their boats and water based assets using various water management systems, ranging from desalination machines to the use of reclaimed water and greywater treatment systems.

The BCN SOTAMAR project with BCN Port Innovation was an initiative with a holistic approach to protect Barcelona’s marine ecosystems by addressing habitat degradation, biodiversity loss and the effects of climate change.

There were 20,677 young people reached through the 37th America’s Cup via the various educational programs such as the FBCN’s “Programa Educatiu La navegació al Segle XXI, un repte tecnològic”, the city council’s “VIU LA VELA” program and the America’s Cup Trophy Tour regattas.

One of the highlights of the 37th America’s Cup was the evening of October 10th 2024, when Barcelona became “The Lighthouse to the World” at the spectacular opening ceremony attended by 60,000 people that lined the Platja de Bogatell beachfront to watch.

A true legacy and inspiration of the 37th America’s Cup was the record fleet of 350 Patí Català catamarans that took to the water in Barcelona for the Patí de Vela Regatta creating a truly unique visual spectacle along the city’s shorefront as a part of the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup and the IV Setmana Catalana de l’Esport (IV Catalan Sports Week).

Barcelona, Catalonia, now joins the illustrious and exclusive list of global cities to host the America’s Cup, and can proudly be remembered for delivering one of the best America’s Cup experiences ever in the 173 years history, and where for the summer of 2024, the city and people of Barcelona turned to the sea to witness sailing history which will leave an enduring legacy for many decades to come.

Details: https://www.americascup.com/

Defender New Zealand will work with the Challenger of Record from Great Britain to organize the 38th America’s Cup. Anticipated to be held in 2027, the two teams have agreed on some details with the venue to be confirmed by June 2025 after Barcelona declined hosting another edition.

Source: America’s Cup Media