To say the Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup in Barcelona was a resounding success, is an understatement. The Cup generated a positive economic impact of €1.034 billion – the true power of sport!
The findings
The University of Barcelona and the Barcelona Capital Nàutica Foundation (FBCN) were responsible for the exhaustive post-event economic impact study. Over €1 billion was shown to have a positive economic GDP return for the host venue Barcelona, Catalonia.
AC37 in numbers
1.8 million visitors were counted over the 59 days across all free-to-attend-event sites, on and off the water. 460,819 unique attendees to Barcelona 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 was associated with all events on the 37th America’s Cup with a total TV audience of 954 million.
Raising the bar
The Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup held in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain) in 2024 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.”
Seen all over the world
The overall global exposure presented the host city of Barcelona in 11,182 hours of global broadcast spotlight. 43,186 hours of global broadcast brand exposure was created, which based on Nielsen data equated to a total gross brand exposure value of €1.367 billion for all of the brands, sponsors and host venue associated with the 37th America’s Cup.
A total audience of 954 million viewers with a 37% growth in a dedicated audience as well as a 235% increase in overall social media views, including 9.6 million hours of watch time on YouTube, makes the 37th edition the most watched America’s Cup ever.
“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 recognised pinnacle event in sailing,” said Dalton.
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.
Barcelona benefits
The University of Barcelona did an independent post-event imoact study. They reported 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.
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 offered the opportunity to expose and engage new audiences. This led to the was 1.8 million visitors scanned and counted over 59 event days across 3 free event sites totalling 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.
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.
The teams play their part
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.
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. Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli 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.
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. Eleven AC40s were produced in the 37th America’s Cup cycle and the AC40 was named “World Sailing Boat of the Year” in 2023.
Tech success
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. 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.
WindSightIQTM with Capgemini allowed the TV audience 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.
Keeping it green
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. This 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. 9 hydrogen-powered foiling chase boats were 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. This was achieved by washing their boats and water-based assets with 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.
