ALMERÍA 2005, THE POINT OF REFERENCE

The closest example available to us is the city of Almería, venue of the XV Mediterranean Games in 2005.

Almería enjoyed a significant leap, both qualitatively and quantitatively with regard to both grassroots and top level sport. The whole of the city's population backed the games and benefited from them.

The Games served Almería and may serve Tarragona as a driving force for substantial investments of a specific nature. The people of Almería received direct and indirect investment of over a thousand million euros. Just in sports facilities the amount invested reached 130 million euros.

This provides yet another argument to support Tarragona's request to host the Mediterranean Games in 2017 and proves the importance of the event which, moreover, has a high geostrategic and political significance as a cultural exchange between the two shores of the Mediterranean.