Ravidi saves 2021 after approaching the tie point

Winter sports keep increasing its budget item little by little. a) yes, The Royal Winter Sports Federation (Rfedi) was able to close 2021 in break even After increasing its spending by 16%, due to the needs of the Beijing Olympics, and thanks to the extraordinary moratorium it received from the Supreme Council for Sports (CSD) on holding the Games, he explained from the federation to 2Playbook.

“There was really a point where we thought we were going to end the year in a quandary. We had to make a great effort to control spending, though the Olympics, to increase the resources that we had. We closed the positive by a very small margin, but in the end, it is true that our aim is not to make money but to provide a service”, stated Olmo Hernan, General Manager Sport at Rfedi.

For the current fiscal year, the union will have a slightly higher budget, which 4.5 million euros. Of this amount, about 70% comes from public support and aid and the other 30% comes from private resources that Rfedi achieves through various initiatives. At the moment, they do not know from the federation how much the Supreme Council for Sports (CSD) is giving them for this exercise.

Despite the fact that they assure from the institution itself that it is necessary to increase this work, the fact is that the income of the Winter Sports Federation has increased by 40% in recent years.

In 2021, the Russian Federation succeeded in getting Spain to host 25% more competitions than in 2019, before the health crisis, a figure they hope to maintain in 2022. Looking at the current year, the Winter Sports Foundation has requested that it host the cup. It has a stopover in Spain and also hosts some European Cup tests.

“You have to understand that Rfedi is in Spain Competing with other European countries that have a much larger budget. We are talking about countries such as Switzerland, Italy and France, whose resources in some cases amount to about 60 million euros. This makes it more difficult for us to compete on an equal footing with powers that already have a unified center,” Hernan notes.

One of the union’s sources of income is the guarantees it signs with companies. This game was hit hard during 2020 as a result of the pandemic, but started to recover in 2021. Looking at 2022, Rfedi’s sports general manager explains that 2Playbook That there are many companies that have shown interest in partnering with the consortium as the private sector increasingly wants to associate itself more with projects related to the environment and nature.

Federalism and Pyrenees 2030

Regarding the number of sports licenses, Rfedi was able to maintain licenses in 2021. In addition, it must be taken into account that the organization managed to maintain a significant part of its federations in 2020, despite the impact and restrictions caused by Covid-19, it lost 13% Only from their licenses. Since 2015, This number gradually increased to grow by 30%.

“People are changing their habits. The pandemic has made people choose more outdoor activities such as skiing or snowboarding. It also means resorts have just concluded a very good season, with all of them together achieving results in line with the growth they had before the pandemic. The stations have made an effort to provide quality service to customers,” Hernan emphasized.

As for the possibility of the Pyrenees hosting the 2030 Winter Olympics, the General Director of Sports in Rafidi defends it It will be an ultimate milestone to promote and encourage sports around the celebration of this event. “It will give us the opportunity to develop a sports strategy and plan like the one implemented in Barcelona 92, the investment of which continues to earn a living for many summer disciplines. It is a wonderful opportunity that winter sports have not yet had,” he says.

But the truth is that this candidacy is currently blocked. In fact, the lack of agreement between the administrations of Pyrenees and Aragon caused the technicians of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to postpone the visit they were due to make to visit the facilities and know in depth the details of the Spanish proposal. Technicians have already made the corresponding visit to some of the main competitors in the Pyrenees, such as Salt Lake City (USA) and Vancouver (Canada).