Inside the Barcelona Open: A Masterclass in Sports Event Management

World-class tennis, live brand activations, and a real look at what it takes to run one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world. Not a bad day out for ESEI Master in Sports Management students.

A visit to the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, led by Professor Julia Roca Valverde, gave students a first-hand look at the operational complexity behind the scenes of an ATP 500 tournament and at how global brands use major sporting events as powerful commercial platforms.

One of Tennis’s Most Prestigious Tournaments

The Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell, also known as the Trofeo Conde de Godó, is played annually at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona on clay courts. It holds ATP 500 status, placing it among the most significant clay court events in the world outside the Grand Slams, and has been a fixture in the city’s sporting calendar since 1953.

For sports management students, it represents something beyond tennis. It is a fully operational event business, managing thousands of spectators daily, coordinating broadcast operations, hospitality, logistics, security and a complex web of commercial partnerships, all running in parallel across more than a week of competition.

Event Management at Scale

One of the most valuable things a learning walk like this offers is the chance to see event management theory applied in a real, live environment.

The organisational structure required to run a tournament of this scale is considerable. Venue operations, ticketing, media accreditation, player logistics, on-site hospitality, broadcast coordination and crowd management all run simultaneously. Students were able to observe how these functions interact and what it takes to keep everything moving when the stakes and the live cameras are always on.

For students who have studied event management in the classroom through ESEI’s project-based learning approach, seeing it in action at this level bridges the gap between academic knowledge and professional practice in a way that no lecture can fully replicate.

The Commercial Power of Sport: Mango, Lexus and Moritz

The Barcelona Open also offered students a close look at how global and local brands use major sporting events as platforms to connect with audiences, build awareness and drive commercial outcomes.

Mango, one of Europe’s leading fashion groups and a Barcelona-born brand, serves as a technical sponsor of the tournament, responsible for dressing all personnel on court including ball boys and ball girls, line judges and umpires. Lexus activates as an automotive partner, and Moritz, the iconic Barcelona craft beer brand, brings a strong local identity to the tournament’s hospitality and fan experience.

Watching these activations in person made tangible something that is often discussed in the abstract in the classroom: that sport is a commercial ecosystem, and the game itself is only one part of it. The way brands position themselves around an event, the experiences they create for fans, and the deals they negotiate with tournament organisers are all expressions of sports marketing strategy in action.

What This Looks Like for a Sports Management Career

Understanding how a major tournament operates, how sponsors activate their partnerships, and how the commercial machinery of sport works is exactly the kind of knowledge that distinguishes a strong candidate in a competitive industry.

Sports management professionals work across event operations, sponsorship, marketing, broadcasting, venue management and commercial development. Experiences like the Barcelona Open visit give students a reference point that stays with them throughout their careers, something concrete to draw on when they are in the room with clients, event organisers or brand partners.

This is what studying sports management in Barcelona actually looks like. Not just theory in a classroom, but access to live events, real professionals and the commercial realities of the industry, in a city where sport and business intersect at the highest level.

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