Aspira students participated in the Madrid Weekender and had the opportunity to visit the Mutua Madrid Open 2016 tournament held at the wonderful La Caja Mágica complex, visit the Santiago Bernabéu stadium where they watched the Real Madrid – Valencia match, did the Bernabéu Tour and dined at the Real Café Bernabéu. They also learned new things about sport management at the Escuala Universitaria Real Madrid – Universidad Europea from top experts who will also be teaching at Aspira.
The Madrid Weekender was organised by Events GB, an event management agency. The very gracious host, director Gerardo Bielonos and our Erasmus student Zvonimir Stamenov made this study trip unforgettable. Alongside Aspira students, students from the UK and Germany also participated in the Weekender.
Friday, May 6, was reserved for the Mutua Madrid Open 2016 during which the men’s quarterfinals and the women’s semi-finals were held. The wonderful Caja Mágica was host to the world’s best tennis players, as well as footballers, giving us the opportunity to see Murray, Nadal, Souza, as well as Cristiano Ronaldo who showed up to been seen and to support the players. Out of all the matches, the atmosphere reached its peak when Nadal appeared on the court in front of his home crowd and won against the Portuguese player Souza. Spending the whole day at the tennis tournament took its toll so we could hardly wait for dinner at the Real Café Bernabéu restaurant. Here we had the opportunity to taste various specialties and hang out with other people attending the Weekender, as well as with lecturer Kevin Roberts, the founder of the Sport Business magazine.
Saturday kicked off with lectures at the Real Madrid University, a part of Universidad Europea de Madrid. The faculty’s modern building is brimming with Real markings, drawing people hungry for sport management knowledge. The brand really does means quite a lot. Lectures were held by Kevin Roberts (SportBusiness International), Alfonso Roberes de Cominges, sales manager of Real Madrid CF and Rene Kohr (Bwin), focusing on the future of sport through interesting success stories in which they themselves participated.
The afternoon was reserved for the Bernabéu Tour, a guided tour of one of the world’s most famous stadiums. We had the opportunity to experience Real Madrid’s glorious past, to stand on the field where important matches, which left a mark on the history of football, were played and to see where the players relax and prepare for matches. The tour ended by visiting the big Adidas store where everything bearing the logo of this great club is available for purchase.
Participants of the Weekender had the evening off, giving them the opportunity to relax as they wished. Some decided to stay in their rooms and rest, while others decided to check out Madrid’s nightlife. By what could be heard and seen the day after, I believe everyone made good use of their evening.
Sunday started a bit later, around 14:30 to be more precise, when we all gathered at the offices of Events GB where we prepared refreshments and gave all Weekender participants thank-you cards. After that, the participants headed to Santiago Bernabéu where they had the opportunity to watch some of the world’s best footballers play in the Real Madrid – Valencia match.
The Weekender ended with a post-match get-together in the Irish Rover, a local bar where we summed-up impressions over hamburgers and beers and said farewell to each other until the next time.