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By Christopher Reive in Barcelona

More than 1000 people walked the streets of downtown Barcelona this weekend to voice their opposition to the city hosting the America’s Cup.

The march was led by the regatta-opposing No Copa America group to send a message against the local governing bodies spending money on events to lure more tourists to the city.

“This competition brings a model of the city that we don’t want, a city that is more for the rich people than the [people] that already live in the city, and it has used a lot of public money,” No Copa America spokesman Albert Valencia said.

“We’re sending this message to everyone, but especially the administrations here in Barcelona and Catalonia, but also to New Zealand. We want to show that this competition has nothing to do with our city.

“We don’t want to spend more money on this competition; they’re using public money and public money here in Catalonia needs to be used for the city and not for this kind of competition that only serves rich people and people seeing the competition.”

The group marched under the midday sun, holding signs, chanting and at one point stopping for an anti-Cup dance routine to be performed, opposing the government’s decision to spend a reported $80m of public money in their successful bid to host the regatta and its impact locally.

According to a report commissioned and undertaken by the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in May 2023, Barcelona was set to have a positive economic impact of $2.1b as a direct result from hosting the Cup. No Copa America has called for an investigation into the promised return for the city.

Over the past week, an influx of America’s Cup fans has made their way into the city with plenty of people wearing teams merchandise – a noticeable contingent of Team New Zealand fans among them.

Valencia said his group were against the city bringing major events purely to encourage tourism in the future, and the protest against the America’s Cup had been months in the making.

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“To Team New Zealand, we are saying we don’t want the America’s Cup in Barcelona ever again. We don’t want to spend more money on their organisation and their competition, and to please leave our city and never come back.

“We are saying no to America’s Cup, but we don’t want any other big competitions in the city; especially those that don’t have a tradition within our city.”

Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.