How would independence affect sports economy?
Report confirms that creation of a new state would favor sector that occupies larger role in Catalan economy than European average.
EconomistaThe sporting sector occupies a considerable position in our lives because we play sports for leisure, we compete, and we follow our favorite teams' competitions simply for entertainment. In fact, we spend a lot of our time --and money-- on sports. Behind all this consumption there is a wide range of companies that make sporting goods, stores that sell them, companies that manage sports teams, news outlets, federations, and sports clubs.
There is also the activity developed by institutions that design and implement sports policies (Catalan government, regional councils, local government) and sports education offered by both our schools and more specialized institutions, such as the INEFC (Catalan National Institute for Physical Education) or some university colleges.
All of these contributors to the sports sector generate an annual economic value of 2.4 billion euros for the Catalan economy; that is, 1.34% of the whole. Most of this activity (87%) is in the private sector, with a lesser impact in the public sector (13%). Is this relative weight of the sector in the economy greater or lesser than in other countries? After a few adjustments to make the data comparable, it turns out that the contribution of sports to the Catalan economy is slightly higher than in Europe as a whole, identical to the average of seven small, well-developed countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Holland and Sweden), and higher than the average of the new small European countries (Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic). It is also greater than the average of large countries.
As in other areas of the economy, the hypothetical independence of Catalonia would also have consequences for this sector. This is what a group of economists have recently studied. Starting from a current snapshot of sports in the economy, we have made a series of assumptions and analyzed the experiences of some European countries that have become independent in the last few decades, in order to quantify the economic impact of independence. Nevertheless, in some areas it is impossible to calculate this effect in a way that is minimally reliable, and in others the impact is strictly in a sporting context and, while still useful, it can't be quantified financially, either. Let's look at some of the figures.
Positive impact
According to the results we obtained, given certain rather conservative assumptions, secession would have a positive economic impact. Specifically, the direct generation of value in the sector would grow by 7.4%, an increase that would raise its weight in the overall Catalan economy from 1.34% to 1.44%. In an optimistic scenario the value generated would grow by 10%, and in a more pessimistic one, by 5%.
In any case, a sector that is already important in itself and which is relatively well developed not only would not be damaged by independence, but would instead grow economically. Of the activities analyzed, those which would be most affected would be public spending by the Catalan government and local administrations, the national Olympic teams, national sports federation teams, sports clubs, and mass media. The areas with little or no impact would be manufacturing industries, retail commerce, services, sports betting, individual people, sports education, and large international events.
Effects on Barça
Someone will surely ask how this will affect Barça, Espanyol, and La Penya. We have assumed that the football, basketball, and handball clubs that play in the first Spanish divisions would continue to compete there, or would compete in a similar level league, and, as such, would continue to generate the same value as now.
There is another important area that would be affected, too: what sports teams can do for the creation of a national image or brand. This includes international Olympic and federation competitions in basketball, football, and ice hockey, to name a few sports that are very popular here. The contribution to and reinforcement of the image of a country is as undeniable as it is difficult to quantify. And this contribution would come not only from the teams, but also from numerous individual athletes who stand out on an international level.
Olympic Games and major events
In terms of participation in international competitions --based on experiences from countries that have emerged in the last 25 years (all coming from centralized and planned economies, by the way)-- Catalonia would send more participants than it now sends under the Spanish flag.
The cost of independence would be a reduction in efficiency (a reduction in the number of medals per participant), while on the benefit side there would be an extremely important fact: we would go from winning no medals as a country to winning some in the name of Catalonia. That is, in the same way that the medals of the USSR and Yugoslavia became medals for Estonia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Croatia etc., the medals earned by Catalan athletes would become Catalan medals. Catalonia would most likely send around 120 athletes to the Summer Olympic games, and could win some 7 medals in each edition.
Finally, independence would bring with it another advantage for the country: the freedom of choice and implementation of our own sports policies, without the need to go through Madrid -- which, as we know, is no small thing.
