Euro 2012 preparations should boost Poland's economy Courtesy of AAF PZPN W. Sierakowski

Now that the 2010 World Cup in South Africa has come to an end, soccer fans are turning to Poland and Ukraine in anticipation of Euro 2012.

With only two years left until Poland co-hosts the tournament – and the arrival of between 800,000 and 1.2 million foreign tourists – preparations are gaining speed. But what impact will the tournament have on Poland’s economy?

For starters, PL.2012, the Ministry for Sport and Tourism’s special purpose vehicle for coordinating tournament preparations, says around zł.80 billion will be spent on 84 major infrastructure projects.

Some are already underway, such as the preparation of six stadiums – in host cities Gdańsk, Warsaw, Wrocław and Poznań and in two back-up cities. There is also the significant improvement of airports, rail infrastructure, public transport and roads in and between host cities.

Impact on growth

“This event will have the third-largest impact on the Polish economy, after the accession of Poland to the EU and the potential adoption of the common currency,” said Jakub Borowski, an expert at the Warsaw School of Economics. Mr Borowski was commissioned to research the impact of Euro 2012 preparations on the Polish economy.

According to him, infrastructure improvements will cost some zł.69.7 billion. Some zł.5 billion will be spent on stadium construction, while hotels and other tournament-related programs are estimated at zł.6.6 billion.

These investments will in turn result in an increase in GDP of over 0.3 percent and a growth of 1.4 percent in FDI just by themselves.

Higher costs

While the effects of hosting the tournament will be large, so will the costs. The amount of money Poland will have to pump into its preparations is significantly higher than those of previous Euro host nations. That’s because Poland and Ukraine, the first non-Western European hosts, do not possess the basic road infrastructure to accommodate the influx of visitors, said Marcin Herra, CEO of PL.2012.

However, experts pointed out that these costs are related to projects that Poland would have implemented anyways. The tournament has simply put a deadline the projects, forcing the government to set them in motion.

UEFA confident

UEFA has said it is confident that Poland will be ready to host the games and welcome visitors in 2012. “Preparations in Poland are going pretty smoothly and are generally on track,” UEFA told WBJ in a statement. “We are therefore fully confident that the necessary infrastructure, including stadiums, will be completed or upgraded according to the planned schedule and to the required level.”

“UEFA will nevertheless continue to closely monitor the situation … to prevent any setback from happening.”