The Community of Madrid (CAM) expects that hosting the Euroleague Final Four, which starts Friday, will have an economic impact of €55.25M ($62.78M), according to Darío Ojeda of EL CONFIDENCIAL. The CAM paid €1.2M ($1.36M) to host the event. The total organizing cost of the Euroleague Final Four is around €3M, but the CAM does not pay all of this, "as part of the cost is covered by the Euroleague itself." Euroleague figures indicate that the average economic impact from the 13 Final Fours it has organized ('02-14) is around €23M ($26M) -- the result of multiplying the average number of fans in attendance (13,890) by the average amount each spend fans (€1,663) ($1,890). This average "is very far from the CAM's calculation." In November, tickets "not reserved for the teams" sold out in less than 24 hours. For Friday's semifinals, Real Madrid will have 4,500 fans, followed by Fenerbahçe (1,500), Olympiacos (1,400) and CSKA Moscow (1,000). These numbers "do not count tickets resold on secondary markets, which could make the number of fans of each team vary." The CAM is expecting the Final Four to attract 11,000 foreign visitors over the three days of competition (EL CONFIDENCIAL, 5/13).
