The Portugal Hospitality Association said that Lisbon will host 60,000 people from Madrid this weekend, according to Antonio Jiménez Barca of EL PAIS. The Champions League final between Atlético and Real Madrid will take place in Lisbon on Saturday and "this weekend will mark the most Spanish visitors per square meter in Lisbon since the city was founded." Lisbon hotels "ran out of beds a while ago." The city "only has 20,000 hotel beds" and the hotels in nearby cities "are also virtually saturated." There are, "however, still options, but at stratospheric prices: reservation website Booking on Monday announced that a room at the Borges Chiado hotel in the heart of Lisbon" cost €5,000 ($6,900). Rooms that normally cost €100-€120 ($137-$164) will cost more than €500 ($685) on Saturday night. Lisbon, "which is experiencing a tourism rebirth due to, among other things, the increase in visitors, is hoping to take advantage of football's pull to charm the Spanish tourists" (EL PAIS, 5/19).
ATLÉTICO WATCH PARTY: In Madrid, Luis Aznar reported Atlético "is preparing a place where fans without tickets can watch the game as if they were in Lisbon -- the Vicente Calderón." The club is "expecting 50,000 of its fans to watch the match on one of four giant screens at the stadium." Tickets for the watch party went on sale on the team website on Monday and "more than 12,000 seats had been purchased by the end of the afternoon." Atlético members "will receive free tickets, even if they are not season-ticket holders." For the "rest of the public, tickets to watch the game at the stadium" will cost €5 ($7). Taking "into account that these tickets will remain on sale until the day of the final, all signs point to the Vicente Calderón experiencing its ninth sellout of the season" (MARCA, 5/20). The EFE reported Spain's Civil Guard and General Traffic Directorate will collaborate with Real and Atlético to "make sure the team's fan bases do not cross paths as they travel to Lisbon." The "intention is to distribute the fan bases throughout various areas so that they are not together during stops." Extremadura, Spain government delegate Germán López Iglesias said, "This is not to say that the fans cannot coexist, but we are not looking to provoke any situations; if a Real Marid bus stops at one point, an Atlético bus can stop somewhere else" (EFE, 5/20).
