The brand new national football stadium in Bucharest may have cost €240m to build, but there aren’t a lot of hotel and pub owners in the city complaining about the cost. It’s being reported that hotel enjoyed 95 percent occupancy on the night of the Europa League final match, in part because at least 10,000 Romanians joined the flood of foreigners flocking in to watch the spectacle between Athletic Bilbao and Atletico Madrid. The official Romanian tour operator union reported earnings of €10m, while the city took in €28m for its troubles (which included the mobilization of upwards of 6,000 police and firefighters).
Mayor Sorin Oprescu was proud of the praise the city garnered for the event, showing it proved the country was civilized after all.
The numbers could have been slightly higher, though, if a group of 400 Bilbao fans had been paying attention during their geography lessons. They flew to Budapest, rather than to the Romanian capital, and were unable to make arrangements to get to the match on time. Their team, of course, also lost 3-0. They weren’t alone, however, as the official UEFA presenter greeted the 53,000 fans with the words “Welcome Budapest!”
