The regional government in Andalucía has announced that Seville’s Estadio de la Cartuja will continue to host the final of football’s Copa del Rey until at least 2024.
The stadium has hosted the last three editions of the event, including the 2022 final on Sunday which saw Real Betis defeat Valencia on penalties. Andalucía’s deal with the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) had been due to expire after the 2023 final but a new agreement has now been struck.
The regional government has also confirmed that the 60,000-capacity Estadio de la Cartuja will be one of the host venues for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, if Spain is successful in its bid to stage the tournament alongside Portugal.
The stadium opened in May 1999 for Seville’s staging of the World Athletics Championships before closing in 2018 after the local authorities determined that its roof required costly renovation work. The necessary work was subsequently carried out and in February 2020 a deal was struck with the RFEF for hosting rights to four editions of the Copa del Rey final.
The Estadio de la Cartuja also ended up hosting matches at last year’s rescheduled UEFA Euro 2020 national team tournament after Bilbao was forced to withdraw due to uncertainties regarding fan attendance.
Manuel Alejandro Cardenete, Minister of Education and Sports for Andalucía, has reported that the five Copa del Rey finals at the Estadio de la Cartuja will have an economic impact of more than €165m (£139m/$176m) for the city of Seville.
Last year, the stadium hosted both the 2020-21 and the delayed 2019-20 Copa del Rey final. Both matches took place without fans due to COVID-19 but generated an economic return of €10m each.
This year’s match was played in front of a full-capacity crowd and the economic impact has been around €45m, a figure which is expected to be replicated in 2023 and 2024. Seville’s four matches at Euro 2020 also had an approximate impact of €215m.
This year’s UEFA Europa League final will also be held in Seville at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium, home of LaLiga club Sevilla.
Andalucía recently secured another major sporting event after Malaga was awarded hosting rights to the knockout stages of the Davis Cup Finals for 2022 and 2023.
Image: Estadio Olimpico de la Cartuja/CC BY 3.0/Edited for size
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