A goal worth ten million dollars

Football player Contra took a fall at the end of the game played on Wednesday, which will be followed by other falls, under the domino effect. This time, the plunge will be taken by revenues of several Romanian economic sectors, which vanished together with the qualification chances.

The football industry is expected to incur the biggest losses, as Romania will not be participating in the World Cup, but other sectors will also be affected.

The media, the tourism industry, the producers of alcoholic and soft drinks, bar and restaurant owners were pained by what happened on Wednesday much more than any supporter of the national football team, as they could have earned a lot of money if Romania went to the World Cup.

Related losses, or rather the revenues lost by all these economic sectors were estimated at over ten million dollars by Ziarul Financiar.

Direct losses incurred by Romanian football also exceed this level. Romania’s mere presence at the World Cup would have brought almost 4.5 million dollars to the Romanian Football Federation. Romanian football players would have been well rated, so more money could have been cashed.

Under the related losses chapter, the Romanian Television seems to have been affected the most. If Romania played at least three games in Japan, advertising revenues would have amounted to almost 800,000 dollars.

The biggest sports newspaper on the Romanian market, ProSport, is losing almost 500,000 dollars.

“It’s difficult to assess our losses. All I can say is that we would have earned an additional 200,000 dollars if the Romanian team went to Japan. I estimate circulation losses at about 200,000 dollars,” ProSport editor-in-chief Catalin Tolontan told Ziarul Financiar.

ProSport is not the only newspaper that will be posting losses, but also the entire Romanian media, together with the other television channels. Sports programmes would have had bigger ratings, therefore advertising revenues would have soared.

“It is certain that the presence of the Romanian team to the World Cup would have triggered an increase in the circulation of the main newspapers, therefore the possibility that advertising space was more expensive. Anyway, that’s it!” said Arina Minculescu, project manager with the Romanian Office for Circulation Audit.

Producers of alcoholic and soft drinks usually post sale increases when such events occur, together with the owners of bars and terraces. “Our sales used to double during the games played by Romania,” said Cristi Hurduc, owner of the Mash Pub & Grill bars, which are located in Bucharest and Vama Veche.