BERLIN: A study of the financial impact of Covid-19 on the Euro finals host cities has estimated a £169m revenue fall compared with pre-pandemic expectations.

The study of football tourism spending has been undertaken by sports data company pitchinvasion.net.

Its projections consider that London – with eight matches – will make the highest amount of money over the course of the tournament at £23.8m followed by St Petersburg (£22.3m), and Budapest (£17.5m). Amsterdam is estimated to make the least at £2.7m.

Attendance restrictions are set to cost London the most in income, with a £57.3m shortfall compared to normal circumstances with a full capacity stadium.

The study began by gathering information on the 12 original host cities for the tournament as well as the Spanish replacement host city, Seville, including the number of games scheduled in each city, where each team is playing, and the stadium capacities to predict visitor numbers.

Next, the average nightly tourism expenditure in the host countries was researched, including accommodation, restaurants and other spending, but excluding spending on transport. This data was found for visitors from all 24 countries participating in the tournament.

Then, the study considered different fan attendance scenarios. Firstly, a normal scenario was imagined where stadiums were at capacity and fans of each nation could attend their team’s games in full stadiums. The overall income that each host city could have received in these circumstances was then calculated.

Lastly, provisional minimum stadium attendance figures submitted by every host city were used to calculate the revenues cities can expect to receive from visitors to the tournament this summer.

The result was the detailed assessment of the economic impact of the tournament on the host cities, comparing the income they could have received under normal circumstances with the income they are projected to receive in current circumstances.

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