Economic, Social, and Sporting Transformation of Barcelona from the 1992 Olympics     

Barcelona is known as a thriving and bustling city that attracts many tourists, but until the 1992 Olympic Games the city was hardly on the map in terms of places to go. From the hotels and beaches to the new roads and infrastructures, the Olympics helped Barcelona make its mark in the world. According to the city’s mayor, Xavier Trias, hosting the 1992 Olympic Games “totally transformed” Barcelona.^[1] Because of the 1992 Olympics, Barcelona experienced great economic growth, social growth, and even a growth in sport. Nowadays we think of the Spanish city as a land of “sun, sand, and a sangria,”[2] but it is easy to forget that before the Games in 1992, Barcelona was not a thriving place. Before the Games, Barcelona was an industrial city in need of a transformation to a more mixed, modern economy. The years prior to the 1992 Games, Barcelona undertook an impressive urban transformation, adding new monuments and buildings based on its vibrant architectural tradition which were updated for the needs of a twenty-first century city.[3]

            The City Council of Barcelona claims that the Olympic Games played a huge role in implementing regeneration plans.[4] The city went through a transformation and eventually changed its image from a typical industrial city to a flexible, dynamic city with beaches, new sporting venues, and a new way of life.^[5] Roads and transportation infrastructure, housing, office and commercial venues, telecommunications and services, and hotel facilities were all renovated and made more extravagant in order to not only create a good impression on the International Olympic Committee and the athletes that came, but to also create a better city for the people who live there.^[6] Because of these new renovations, the unemployment rate dropped drastically and more people had a chance for a better life. Also, there was not really a beach in Barcelona before the Games. The Games pushed the city out of an industrial era by influencing it to create two miles of beachfront and a modern marina by demolishing industrial buildings on the waterfront before the Games. The beaches of today used to be an industrial dumping ground and were redeveloped as part of the preparations for the Games.^[7] “They opened up the beach to the rest of the city, redesigned high-crime areas to make them safer, and built athletic facilities that are still used by the citizens today.”[8] As a result, Barcelona went from becoming a place that no one knew about to one of the top cities in the world.

Barcelona not only used the money for the Olympics to build magnificent structures for the Games such as the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys which was remodeled,[9] but also helped the city vibrant and flourishing. This money significantly improved the city as a whole by “new roads being increased by 15%, new sewage systems 17%, and green areas and beaches by a whopping 78%.”[10]  While all of this came at a huge cost, it has benefited the city in more ways than one: unemployment dropped dramatically, the rate of tourism increased, and there was improvement in the popularity of the local sports teams.[11] Compared to all the investments of past cities hosting the Olympic Games prior to the 1992 Games, Barcelona had the largest indirect investment with $6,915,274.[12]

Even though the Games created many more job opportunities, it was a struggle to keep them all when the Games ended.  After the Games, unemployment in Barcelona rose drastically. Since the Olympics involved the need for more workers, when the Games ended, Barcelona experienced a rapid retraction in jobs. Over the following years, however, unemployment fell significantly as the city adjusted to the needs of the unemployed and created more secure opportunities for them.[13] The investments generated by the Games provided a “soft mattress, breaking the fall in a context of general depression.”[14] Barcelona’s economy proved resistant to the “widespread repression and, after 1994, once again began to create employment”[15] thanks to some of the permanent jobs deriving from the Olympic investment.

Thanks to the Olympic Games, there was an increase in tourism and weekly sporting events, along with international sporting events, which aided in the social and economic growth of Barcelona.[16] Many of the facilities built in preparation for the Olympics have been used by local sporting teams and groups. Trias noted, “holding major sports competitions is now a key part of our development and I’m convinced that sport is the perfect way to inject life into a city, to improve its well-being and to put it on the international stage.”[17] He again said that “the capacity for organizing events in our city just grows and grows. Every weekend there is some kind of sporting event going on in Barcelona and more than 40,000 girls and boys take part in competitions organized here.”[18] Clearly, the 1992 Olympics aided Barcelona in becoming a world-known attraction and vibrant community. What is amazing is the breadth of impact that the Olympic Games can have, not only as a sporting event but also in terms of economic regeneration. It created a significant amount of jobs for local people. Equally, the Games were a unique opportunity to showcase the city to the world and hosting the Games successfully helped bring both sporting and non-sporting events to the city.

-Rachel Wyatt

[1] International Olympic Committee, “Barcelona ‘Totally Transformed’ by Hosting 1992 Olympic Games,” Olympic.org, July 17, 2012, https://www.olympic.org/news/barcelona-totally-transformed-by-hosting-1992-olympic-games.

[2] Adam Taylor, “How the Olympic Games Changed Barcelona Forever,” Business Insider Inc., July 26, 2012, http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-olympic-games-changed-barcelona-forever-2012-7.

[3] “Barcelona: Urban Transformation and ’92 Olympic Games.” mt.usi.ch, November 30, 2016, http://www.mt.usi.ch/barcelona-123372.pdf

[4] “Barcelona: Urban Transformation and ’92 Olympic Games.”

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Justin Sablich, “With the Olympics Over, Six Former Host Cities Worth Visiting,” The New York Times Company, August 22, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/travel/olympics-rio-2016-london-barcelona.html?_r=0.

[8] Sablich, “With the Olympics Over, Six Former Host Cities Worth Visiting.”

[9] Ryan Young, “Barcelona’s Olympic Transformation,” barcelonaconnect.com, April 14, 2016, http://www.barcelonaconnect.com/barcelonas-olympic-transformation/.

[10] Young, “Barcelona’s Olympic Transformation.”

[11] Ibid.

[12] “Barcelona: Urban Transformation and ’92 Olympic Games.”

[13] Ferran Burnet, “The Economic Impact of The Barcelona Olympic Games, 1986-2004,” The Centre d’Estudis Olimpics, 2005, http://olympicstudies.uab.es/pdf/wp084_eng.pdf.

[14] Burnet, “The Economic Impact of The Barcelona Olympic Games, 1986-2004.”

[15] Ibid.

[16] Pere Duran, “The Impact of the Olympic Games on Tourism,” The Centre d’Estudis Olimpics, 2005. http://ceo.uab.cat/2010/docs/wp083_eng.pdf 4.

[17] International Olympic Committee, “Barcelona ‘Totally Transformed’ By Hosting 1992 Olympic Games.”

[18] Ibid.