Footnote to a footnote

On Sunday I wrote a slightly more serious blog post than normal (sorry, normal service will be resumed shortly) about the World Youth Day in Madrid and I had a footnote about the supposed controversy regarding the cost of the event. Apart from stating time and again that the cost was being covered entirely by the participants and private donations, the organisers pointed out that the vast numbers of visitors to the city would generate a good deal of revenue during a month that is normally a quiet time in the Spanish capital. Now, after the event, the Madrid Chamber of Commerce have given their estimation of what the event brought to the city and they, if anyone, are the ones who are going to be most concerned about costs to the local population. Unfortunately, this page is in Spanish but from the Google translated version of the page I see that they put the figure at around €160 million, far in excess of the €50 million cost. On the basis of this I would say that the case is now closed.