Catalonia: A Winning Choice for the Sports Industry

With a playing field that runs the gamut from Mediterranean beaches to Pyrenees peaks towering 10,000 feet, Catalonia is a winning choice for any sports event.

Centered around Barcelona, Catalonia combines a diverse geography, a mild climate with more than 300 sunny days a year, and a healthy Mediterranean cuisine and culture. Add in venues that can play host to world-class events like Champions League soccer at FC Barcelona’s new 100,000-seat Spotify Camp Nou (the opening will take place for the 2025-2026 season), MotoGP and Formula 1 Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, the Montjuïc Olympic Ring and Segre Olympic Park, and the America’s Cup 2024 race at Port Olímpic, and you have the region that is a natural for any sporting meet or show.

More than 9,000 clubs and over 4,000 sports services business help Catalonia offer event planners a passion for sports and sporting culture, and an infrastructure that is second to none. MICE hotels and venues specializing in the sporting event business offer professional facilities and matchless sports amenities — including access to giants in their fields — as well as businesses and services with impressive experience catering to the sector. Catalonia’s varied sporting scene and championship events and players combine to offer the greatest concentration of sports businesses in Europe.

Together, the region can offer MICE professionals and event planners who want to book an event or tournament a perfect venue that can cater to corporate events, youth sports, professional competition and anything in between.

But the Catalan sporting scene spreads far beyond Barcelona. The region’s four provinces all play host to sports facilities, fairs and congresses, and unique settings and venues — the sheer number of which provides an insight into how seriously sports is taken in Catalonia.

From skiing and skydiving to Formula GP driving, the Catalan region’s wide variety of offerings provide plenty of sporting activities, while the non-sporting side ranges from a cuisine of its own to Mediterranean beaches that will complement any sports-focused meeting or event.

Barcelona itself is a world-class center of the arts and architecture, playing host to cultural institutions like the Museu Picasso and Fundació Joan Miró, as well as to living works like Antoni Gaudí’s famed cathedral — the Basílica de la Sagrada Família. Vineyards and gastronomy are also a big part of the draw of Catalonia, with a local-centric cuisine centered around the region’s produce and livestock.

The sporting event business is a key sector for the Catalunya Convention Bureau, which can provide access to hotels, venues and the vibrant sports ecosystem that will help any meeting, event or tournament hit its “GOOOALS”!