The Spanish water polo team, which was proclaimed world champion last week, was made up entirely of players from three Catalan teams: CN Atlètic Barceloneta, CN Barcelona and CN Sabadell. How is it possible to achieve world gold with a squad based on sports clubs that are increasingly suffocated by rising costs and the economic crisis? “It’s a miracle, there is no other explanation”, summarizes Jordi Payà, Olympic gold medalist in Atlanta 1996 and manager of the historic CN Catalunya. The last two years have been especially hard for swimming sports clubs. “The scenario has been critical since March 2020 and very critical since February 2022”, analyzes Claudi Martí, president of CN Sabadell. The pandemic limited their activities and reduced their income.
The health crisis, however, has given way to an energy crisis that has had a major impact on day-to-day swimming: the cost of maintaining pool heating has skyrocketed. CN Sabadell, explains Martí, has gone from paying one million euros in energy matters to paying 1.7 in one year; and expects to exceed two million next year for the same concept. “We made little mistakes with these calculations,” he advances. The problem, he says, is the increasing evolution of the price of gas that will push the clubs to the limit. “Now the megawatt costs 44 euros and in a few months it will reach 130 euros. They are unaffordable prices and we will not be able to pay the bills. The sport is going to suffer a lot”. For Santi Fernández, manager of CN Atlètic Barceloneta, the energy crisis will be even tougher than the pandemic: “It will not be like a wave that goes up and down. This time it seems that there will be no turning back and the future is not expected to be easy for swimming clubs”, he compares. Atlètic Barceloneta has had a budget deviation of 400,000 euros due to gas inflation, according to Fernández.
The increase in expenses generates an imbalance in the accounts because income does not grow at the same rate and partners are difficult to maintain due to the proliferation of private companies. “In recent years, with the increase in healthy habits, sports entities have been created that do not have the idea of training athletes and competing like clubs, but of offering a service for profit,” says Toni Esteller, former national water polo coach and emblem of CN Barcelona. These companies, like the DiR or Európolis gyms, for example, are “direct competition” from the swimming clubs, adds Esteller, and lack “a training will”.
The consequence is automatic: the members demand an improvement in the portfolio of services in their lifelong club to continue being registered and they urge the clubs to allocate a greater part of the budget to the improvement of the facilities. “Now the clubs do classes of spinning and they enable paddle tennis courts so that members do not go to other gyms”, exemplifies the former CN Barcelona coach: “This leads you to have less income because you have fewer members; and increase expenses again because you invest in infrastructure to recover those who have left. Clubs have a budget and the last thing they look at is professional sport.”
All the managers consulted, however, admit that the clubs have a virtue that private companies do not have: “The feeling of belonging”. Users identify the triumphs of professional teams as their own, although managers admit that the tradition of adding sons to the odds is being lost. “I hardly know any member who doesn’t celebrate the successes of the League or who isn’t happy that the nucleus of the team is from Atlètic Barceloneta”, adds Fernández. Perhaps for this reason, private gyms lost more than 50% of subscribers during the pandemic, due to approximately 20% of clubs. “In gyms you pay for a service; not here”, summarizes Martí.
And in this subsistence cycle, where are the athletes? “They have less and less potential,” Payà warns. His club is one of the three entities along with CN Barcelona and Atlètic Barceloneta with a European Cup in the men’s category in the record (CN Catalunya won it in 1995). The legendary Manel Estiarte and Jesús Rollán trained in its pools, among other pillars of the great Spanish team of the 1990s. But the opening of a nearby Europolis and a bad investment at the beginning of the century limited its sporting capacity. “We had 9,000 members and more than 600,000 euros were invested in the first team,” explains the manager. The money dwindled and the salaries of the professionals do not currently exceed 500 euros.
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Atlètic Barceloneta contributed eight players to the Spanish team last World Cup, Sabadell three and Barcelona two. All the testimonies admit that David Marín’s team was one of the favorites to win gold. “It is a very talented team”, they claim. But today’s success is tomorrow’s uncertainty. “I’m not worried about imminent success”, considers Martí; “The foundation is strong and successes can be repeated,” he adds. “The problem is that the sports structure suffers in the medium and long term due to the lack of resources. And without powerful clubs, successes will be more complicated”, warns the president of Sabadell.
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