Visiting the 2017 Roller Games facilities in Barcelona, Spain

Photos of all the facilities of the 2017 Roller Games!

The FIRS Congress of February 21st, 2015 officially declared Barcelona as the host city for the 1st edition of the Roller Games, which will take place in 2017.

The Roller Games in figures

• 6.000 athletes to take part in the event
• 5.000 coaches and team staff members expected
• 10 different skating disciplines
• A budget close to 11 millions of euros
• All competition sites within a radius of 10 km

The FIRS delegation was made of:

• Sabatino Aracu: FIRS President
• Roberto Marota: FIRS General Secretary
• Laura Morandi: FIRS Executive Secretary
• Alexandre Lebrun: Downhill
• Jorge Roldán: Speed
• Margaret Brooks: Artistic
• Gilbert Portier: Inline Hockey
• Harro Struckberg: Rink Hockey
• Olivier Pascal: Freestyle Skating
• Sigi Ziestler: Alpine Slalom

Unity of place and organizational expertise

A first meeting of introduction to the event took place on Wednesday January 21st, 2015 in the late afternoon. It was explained that all the areas of practice would be placed within a radius of 10 km in Barcelona proper. Thanks to that unity of place, moving from one competition place to another should be quite easy.

Barcelona, Olympic city, highlighted the organization of major world events over the last years: X-Games, World Championships of Handball and Baseball…

The planning dates have been set for July 9th to 23rd, 2017.

Facilities

A tour was organized on Thursday, January 21st to visit the places that will host the different competitions.

Barcelona showcased its many sports facilities adapted to indoor disciplines like rink hockey, roller derby, inline hockey and artistic skating.

Diagonal Mar, a new district facing the Mediterranean sea, will be at the core of the organization. It is where all accommodations will be, as well as many competitions: Most of the outdoor competitions will take place at the Forum Park, and the CCIB (the International Convention Center of Barcelona) will host the artistic competitions as well as the press rooms and the tv broadcasts on a total of 100.000 m2!

Large accommodation capacities will be available with over 4.000 rooms within a 300 m area.

Roller Derby games will take place at the Mar Belle Municipal Sports Complex (1.200 permanent seats + 1.200 seats added). The final phases of Roller Hockey will also be played there.

Roller Hockey games will take place at the Pavello Esportiu La Llana — Rubi; This place couldn’t be visited and we don’t have more info on the number of seats.

The Rink Hockey competition will alternatively take place at the Palau Blaugrana (multi-sport center of the FC Barcelona with seating for 7.500 — pretty impressive) and at the CEM OlympicsVall of Hebron (1.700 permanent seats + 500 seats added).

As for speed skating, a speed track is probably going to be built at the center of the road circuit by the Forum Park.
The marathon is advised to be organized on the Diagonal Avenue with a back-and-forth route (at the image of that of Dijon, France) for a loop of 2.5 km.

The Forum Park will host most of the disciplines such as Freestyle Skating (1.500 seats), Aggressive Skating and Skateboard (3.000 seats), and the Alpine Slalom Competition.
The Freestyle area was under construction at the time of the tour, but the place, situated on the sea side promises an ideal setting and a record crowd.

A skating village will be located at the Forum Park too, and will host the commercial activities, street marketing, as well as some leisure and kids activities.

Last but not least, Downhill and Super G will take place on the hill of Montjuic, offering an exceptional view of the city of Barcelona.

Marketing

On Friday, presentations got into further details as for accommodation, transportation and visas, marketing and sponsoring, television productions, finances and event planning.

As for the marketing side of the event, the city establishes itself as a inspirational city (3rd happiest city in the world in 2013). Barcelona is the most popular destination for a city break.

An attractive visual content for television viewers:
– An innovating production planning: HD cameras, on-board cameras, mics placed in specific places…
– Working with Spanish and Catalan TV channels in order to produce content.

The integration of the Roller Games into a global organization:
– Barcelona is an international destination
– Barcelona is a reference for brands
– An efficient communication campaign

Sponsoring

• A realistic sponsoring
• A dimension adapted to the diversity of roller sports disciplines
• ‘Special public interest event’: Support of the sponsors for them to benefit from tax deduction.

The organization budget would come close to 11 millions of euros, but remains realistic according to the scale of the event.

Stock taking

All the info still has to be confirmed but brings a first overview of the size of the 2017 Roller Games. Some evolutions may take place before 2017, further to more in-depth exchanges and according to the needs of each discipline. The organization is strong, and it is made of the directors of the Spanish Federations and of Suma Sports, a company specialized in the organization of large events, bringing a certain professionalism to the candidacy of Barcelona.

Useful Links

Our page dedicated to the Roller Games

2015 FIRS Congress

By Alexandre Lebrun
Photo: Alexandre Lebrun – all rights reserved