The joke of CatalunyaVegas

Something that has bugged me about Catalunya is the obsessive nature of trying to one-up Madrid. If Madrid builds a soccer stadium that can hold 85000 people, Barcelona has to build one that holds 99000. If Madrid builds Terminal 4 with 470,000 m2, Barcelona has to build T1 with 545,000 m2 etc. If the Catalunya really wants to be independent, it shouldn’t need to define itself with reference to Madrid.

The news that Sheldon Adelson picked Madrid to build EuroVegas must have really stuck in the craw of the politicians here, as they immediately announced how they were going to create a project even bigger EuroVegas, called “Barcelona World”. Instead of the 9.4 million projected visitors to EuroVegas, it is going to have 10 million projected visitors. Take that, Madrid!

If you want to know how these government promoted theme parks usually end up, you just need to look at Terra Mítica near Alicante, which was finally sold to Aqualandia for 67 million euros after costing the banks and government at least 377 million.

The claim is that this is going to be privately financed, but as we saw with Spanair, once things fall apart, my guess is that the government will the one stuck with the bill.

Of course, they should have really called it “Tarragona World”, since it’s really going to be an expansion of Port Aventura in Salou. Exactly how 10 million people a year are going to fly into Reus wasn’t really explained.