Malaga, facing up to relegation as a city too

According to experts consulted by SUR, Malaga's relegation from what many consider to be the best football league in the world will affect the city's future, given the impact of the sport from a touristic, economic and image viewpoint.

Taking the cases of cities such as Zaragoza, Valladolid, Murcia and Alicante (whose teams are now either playing in the second or third tiers) as examples, estimations from the Chambers of Commerce in Spain put losses due to relegation anywhere between five and 28 million euros. The total figures depend on the size of the city and the stadium, as well as the number of hotel beds available. In Malaga's case, due to its growing reputation on a global stage, the effect could be even greater.

The principal way a team's relegation directly affects a city's economy is through the decreased crowds at the games, whether fans (both home and away), or professionals (coaching staff, directors, officials or journalists). The absence from the schedule of major games such as Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atlético Madrid will be where the numbers show the greatest difference. This decreased traffic impacts on the hotel, catering and transport industries which, in turn, leads to job losses.

President of the Malaga Confederation of Business Owners (CEM), Javier González de Lara, highlights that having a La Liga side in a city is the equivalent of 25,000 overnight stays, primarily in low season, and 50,000 visitors.

For Plácido Rodríguez, professor of Economics at the University of Oviedo and director of the Fundación Observatorio Económico del Deporte (FOED), the relegation of a football side has a negative impact on a city. He points out that takings at the stadium will be a lot lower as the number of season ticket holders, the prices that they pay and the cost of tickets for one-off games will all be lower, even if this saving on the part of fans will be redistributed around the rest of Malaga.

Stadium revenue aside, in his view, the biggest shortfall will come in the form of television broadcasting rights. For a medium-sized club like Malaga, TV money represents about a half of all income. However, with relegation, this figure will diminish significantly and that will have a knock-on effect on the province's GVA (gross value added). This is money that comes from outside Malaga and its impact on the economy is very significant, he says.

Rodríguez goes on to explain that until this point, Malaga were receiving a little over 55 million euros from TV rights - a number which will fall to around eight or nine next season. This loss, he adds, will be covered somewhat by the so-called relegation 'parachute payments', of between nine and ten million euros, that the club will receive. In total, Malaga CF will lose around 38 million euros from TV money, a quantity that will be reflected in the GVA, he says.

Relegation will also create a loss for Malaga city as a brand, adds Rodríguez, as the football club will be spoken about less in the media. The situation is not helped, he believes, by the current state of affairs at the club, with a frosty relationship existing between the fans and owner Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani.

It's not positive

Experts consulted at advertising and marketing firm, El Cuartel, agree that being outside La Liga is not positive for the image of the city as a lot of media coverage is lost. While playing at the top level is a great attribute for a city, they say that the values of Malaga as a city are firmly established and not linked to the fortunes of the club. That said, it's always better to have a first division team because of the media attention it brings on a global level.

Also working on this hypothesis, Javier González de Lara thinks that the adverse affects suffered by the 'Malaga brand' will depend a lot on how long the team stays out of La Liga and whether the club can convey an impression of stability and recover lost confidence: At the CEM, we find the situation at Malaga CF very worrying, not only because of what is happening on the pitch, but by the apparent instability behind the scenes, both economically and in terms of leadership.

Malaga business owners, however, hope that the team will return to the top flight, in view of the economic and social effects it will have on a province as dynamic and competitive as Malaga, which deserves to be represented in the best league in the world.

From an institutional perspective, president of the Malaga provincial government, Elías Bendodo, stresses the importance of having a La Liga team in the province from a tourist perspective. Teams are inevitably linked to the territory they are in, creating a strong link between the city or province and the fans. For this reason it is important to have as successful a team as possible and that the owners, the staff and the players push themselves to maintain a good level all season, he says.

Bendodo adds that Malaga has an elite team, an elite city and province and an elite fan base and calls upon everyone to support the team in the second division while at the same time calling on the owners of the club to match the greatness of the city and this magnificent province.

José Luis Ruiz Espejo, the Junta regional government delegate in the province, says that the financial benefits of having a La Liga team are unquestionable given its impact across various sectors.

Ruiz Espejo believes that relegation, as well as its impact on the mood of the fans, will affect the economy and image of the city. Malaga's image is a very strong one in tourism, culture and technology and that should be matched in sport, especially in football, where we shouldn't only be thinking about getting back into La Liga, but also into European competitions.

This is a theme repeated by the city's mayor, Francisco de la Torre, who calls this very bad news for everyone. He says: If a city like Malaga is among the best in Spain across so many areas, it's only logical that our sports teams should be the same.

overnight stays per year are created in a city like Malaga by having a top-flight team. That figure reduces to 3,000 in the second division.

visitors are estimated to come to a city as a result of having a La Liga team. Opposition such as Real Madrid and Barcelona contributes to this.

million euros is the expected loss to the province's GVA (gross value added) following Malaga CF's relegation to Segunda.