Economic analysts believe Germany’s economy is unlikely to have a direct benefit from the nation staging this summer’s Euro 2024 finals. UEFA, the governing body for football across Europe, anticipates Euro 2024 yielding around $2.6 billion for itself, its partners, as well as the German Football Federation (DFB).
The wider impact
There are the temporary ripple effects into other industries to consider too. It may increase short-term demand for satellite and on-demand streaming subscriptions through the tournament. It’s inspired developers to build themed Slingo experiences for the iGaming industry too. It’s possible to play Paddy Power Slingo games based on Euro 2024, like the new Slingooal! Championship release, which features a giant replica of the European Championship trophy as part of its branding.
Euro 2024 will benefit ten host cities across Germany between June 14-July 14. It’s comfortably the largest sporting event staged in the country since the FIFA World Cup in 2006. Back then, the 2006 World Cup was said to have had a seismic cultural and psychological impact on the country, albeit not quite as strong an economic impact. Marcel Fratzscher, president of the German Institute for Economic Research, believes the same is likely to happen again with no “major impact” on the wider economy, even if the hospitality and catering industry “benefits from additional demand” in the short term.
Fleeting economic benefits anticipated
Michael Gromling, of the Cologne Institute for Economic Research, makes a similar prediction, suggesting there’ll be no “macroeconomic impact” on Germany to underpin the economy going into H2 2024 and beyond. Gromling said any employment impacts are only “temporary and regional” in the best-case scenario. It’s difficult to argue this statement, especially when you consider that once the event is over and the 2.7 million ticket holders have watched every game, tourists will simply return to their home countries in their droves, leaving no economic legacy.
Typically, one of the biggest advantages of a nation hosting a major sporting competition like the Euros or World Cup is the fresh investment in infrastructure. This could be sporting facilities, stadia, transport networks and such like. Although preparations for UEFA Euro 2024 will involve smartening stadia and transport routes across Germany, the country’s existing infrastructure is plenty good enough without a major overhaul, hence the reduced likelihood of an economic legacy.
Previous major football tournaments that transformed regional economies
There are two prime examples where major football tournaments have had seismic impacts on the wider economic picture of countries. In 1994, the United States of America hosted the FIFA World Cup for the first time. It was a move designed to help raise the profile of the sport stateside. It also generated huge revenues for several cities hosting games at the tournament. In Los Angeles alone, the venue for the 1994 World Cup final, some $623 million was plowed back into the metropolitan economy after the tournament. That’s a significant amount when you consider the Super Bowl generated $182 million that year, which is one of the biggest US sporting occasions every year.
Similarly, in 2010, the FIFA World Cup rolled into South Africa, bringing significant economic benefits. The projected direct economic value for South Africa’s GDP was around $1.1 billion, with the creation of 159,000 new jobs, both full-time and part-time.