• Sports The Federation confirms that the final between Athletic and Real will be behind closed doors

Seville

is left without a prize.

Spanish soccer center with two

Copa del Rey finals

in 15 days, the pandemic robs him of 75% of the income.

It will stop receiving about 66 million euros due to the absence of spectators at the

La Cartuja

stadium

, according to estimates by the

Junta de Andalucía

.

Extraordinary protagonist of the month of April, between the postponed final of last year's Cup between

Athletic Club

and

Real Sociedad

scheduled for April 3 and that of this season that

Athletic

and

Barcelona will play

on the 17th, the award in the form of large economic income that these competitions usually bring will remain in a much lower amount.

After speculation this week about the possibility of using a percentage of the capacity in La Cartuja with local fans in Athletic-Real Sociedad, on Thursday the

Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF)

confirmed that there will be no public in the stands, as fans cannot move through the perimeter closures of the autonomies to control the epidemic.

Before, the Government, through the Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, had stated that it was not "adequate, timely or convenient" to play with the public on that date, since massive events were included in the measures to prevent outbreaks in the Holy Week.

"We all want, especially sports fans, to be in person. But this is not the time," he said.

From 86 million uros to 20

The lack of public due to the restrictions derived from the pandemic has broken all forecasts and expectations in sports and also economic matters for hotels, restaurants and all sectors directly or indirectly related to tourism.

The last Cup final played in Seville, which took place in

2019

between

Barcelona

and

Valencia

at

Benito Villamarín

(a stadium with a capacity similar to that of La Cartuja, some 60,000 spectators) had a total impact on the economy of more of 43 million euros, according to data from the Junta de Andalucía.

Therefore, in normal conditions it would be 86 million euros between the two finals, a calculation seriously injured by not having fans in the first one for sure, and with little probability that there will be them in the second.

In accordance with the provisions of the Ministry of Education and Sports, the estimate of the economic return of this final between Real Sociedad and Athletic Club, now set for April 3, will be around ten million euros, the same as the other final , that of this edition, in which the Bilbao team will repeat this time with Barcelona and will take place on the 17th of the same month.

This supposes an income of 20 million between the two finals, approximately 24% of the 86 million that would have landed in the Andalusian capital had they had a normal situation without a pandemic.

Another disappointment for the hoteliers

As reported to Efe by the

Association of Hoteliers of Seville

, "the loss of those events" with fans will be noticed "a lot" in their sector, especially punished by the restrictions applied to their businesses.

This entity estimates that an event of this type would mean an average collection of "about 40 euros per person per day in bars, restaurants and shops", a figure that extrapolated to the almost 60,000 spectators who would come to the city during a weekend, and doubly in the two finals, it would mean a great economic injection for the sector.

Seville has about 23,000 hotel beds according to data from

the National Institute of Statistics,

making it the city with the most capacity in the entire region, in addition to having a wide range of tourist apartments, and with about 4,000 hotel businesses including bars, cafes and restaurants.

When it became known a year ago that Athletic and Real would be the finalists in La Cartuja, the followers of both Basque teams saw how the price of the hotel offer in Seville and its metropolitan area skyrocketed on some dates of high season for the

Week Santa

and the

April Fair

, although very soon after everything came to nothing when the game was postponed.

Some hotels in Seville even blocked Internet reservations at the time due to high demand, which has not happened now since the autonomous communities are perimeter and if some public enters these finals, something not yet decided by the health authorities, it will be predictably from Seville due to restrictions.

Seville, like the rest of Spain, has been without a public presence in professional football stadiums for a year as a result of the pandemic and it was precisely in Seville the last match played with fans, which took place on the already distant 8 March

2020

, a

Betis-Real Madrid

of the last League that was played at

Villamarín

five days before the state of alarm was declared throughout the national territory.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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