A prestigiada Bloomberg editou um artigo dia 17 de Fevereiro em que faz uma pesquisa extremamente interessante em que cruza a sustentabilidade económica do futebol português com as assistências nos estádios e os investimentos que foram feitos. Seria interessante que este mesmo artigo constituisse matéria de reflexão e discussão, embora admita que as minhas expectativas nessa matéria são poucas. Com muita pena.
Segue o artigo que pode ser encontra no site original aqui.
Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Portugal, host of Europe's top soccer competition less than two years ago, is finding the $1 billion it spent on showpiece stadiums for the tournament is crippling the national game.
The 10 arenas built or refurbished for the 2004 European Championship have turned into white elephants. They are victims of no-shows, fans who can't afford to buy tickets because of the economy's demise, and increasing maintenance bills that are hurting teams who play on the fields.
Five teams folded this season and four-fifths of clubs are late with salary payments. Last weekend, the nine top-flight games attracted 80,000 fans to stadiums that hold a combined 278,000, according to national league statistics.
``It's the worst I've seen in 18 years living in Portugal,'' Edilson Pagani, the Brazilian technical director of third-division Louletano, said in an interview. The team gets attendance as low as 1,500 for a 30,000-seat arena. ``I've never seen so few fans,'' Pagani said.
Portuguese teams rely on ticket sales for 31 percent of turnover, almost double the average of counterparts in Italy, Germany and France, according to a 2004 study by Deloitte & Touche LLP. Clubs in the Iberian country, where Chelsea soccer coach Jose Mourinho and Inter Milan midfielder Luis Figo started out, now face the rising maintenance bills at stadiums.
The 18 division one teams in Portugal, including past European Cup winners Benfica and Porto, have 528,000 seats, or one for every 19 people, according to the national league. In Spain, home to Real Madrid and Barcelona, 20 top teams have 779,000 seats, or one for every 51 Spaniards, Spain's league said.
Trophies
On the field, Portuguese soccer has often punched above its weight since Benfica ended a run of five straight successes by Real Madrid to win the European Cup in 1961 and 1962, when it was led by striker Eusebio.
In 2004, Portugal's best-ever soccer year, its national team beat England, captained by David Beckham, on the way to reaching the European Championship final. The same year, Porto overcame Manchester United before winning Europe's Champions League.
Portugal's biggest teams, Benfica, Porto and Sporting Lisbon, hog 70 percent of the combined 278 million-euro ($330 million) turnover of the top 40 teams, according to Deloitte & Touche. The trio has won all the domestic league titles bar one since 1947.
``We produce some of the world's best players but our national league is in a state,'' Joaquim Evangelista, 39, president of the national players' union, said in a telephone interview. ``Our big challenge is getting it back on track.''
Economic Strife
The recent lack of fans reflects Portugal's economy, the second-worst performing of the European Union. Joblessness rose to a seven-year high of 8 percent in the fourth quarter, according to the National Statistics Institute in Lisbon.
In the first four months of the nine-month soccer season, consumer spending fell 0.9 percent. The European Commission predicts Portugal's economy will expand 0.8 percent this year, only better than Malta in the 25-nation EU.
``I used to go with my son and for two people it's a lot of money,'' said Raul Cardoso, 49, a butcher and fan of Lisbon's Benfica. ``It's cheaper to watch on TV.''
Tickets for Benfica's Feb. 26 league game against Porto cost between 21 euros and 60 euros. A ticket to see a movie at a Lisbon cinema typically costs 5 euros.
In preparation for Euro 2004, local governments in Portugal commissioned new arenas, betting they would boost tourism during and after the sports event, which had a continent-wide TV audience reaching 79 million per game. Hotel revenue failed to rise from 2004 to 2005, according to the National Statistics Institute.
Six stadiums in provincial regions from Braga in the north to Loule in the south are helping to push teams that use them further into debt, hiking their maintenance costs as much as five-fold.
`Madness'
Other smaller European soccer nations have chosen to foot the bill jointly. The previous host of the competition, which runs every four years, was Belgium and the Netherlands. Euro 2008 will be played in Austria and Switzerland. Two of the three bidders short-listed for the 2012 competition are doing so jointly.
``It was complete madness building so many stadiums,'' Artur Felipe, President of second-division leader Beira-Mar, said in a phone interview from Aveiro.
Beira-Mar's new 65 million-euro, 30,000-seat stadium by a highway has put off some fans from attending games because they can't walk there, Felipe said. The team is pulling in as few as 4,000 fans per game this season, he added.
``If we don't get promotion this season it will be very, very, very bad,'' Felipe, 60, said.
Other teams already have folded. Two years after moving into the 61 million-euro Algarve Stadium, built for Euro 2004, third- division Farense had to halt operations Nov. 18 because of debt. It was getting as few as 1,000 fans at the 30,000-seat stadium.
In central Portugal, first-division Uniao Leiria is attracting only about 2,000 fans to games at its new 83 million- euro stadium. Leirisport, which manages the 30,000-seat arena, is turning to other events like business lunches and fairs to try and stem losses of 1.94 million euros in the first six months of 2005, the municipal-owned company said.
``There's been a collapse in ticket sales,'' Leirisport spokesman Joao Paulo Empadinhas said.
To contact the reporter on this story:Alex Duff in Madrid at aduff4@bloomberg.net.
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