Malaga CF asks La Rosaleda stadium owners for renovations to keep state up to date

The La Rosaleda stadium in the Martiricos area in Malaga is becoming somewhat outdated and obsolete. The outlook isn't very promising in the medium term because the institutions that own the stadium (the Andalusian regional government, the city council and the provincial authority) declined to host the 2030 World Cup there, which would have allowed for a faster renovation.

Consequently, the deterioration is worsening with each passing month, in addition to the shortage of seats, with the capacity becoming insufficient several years ago (thousands of Málaga CF fans are on the waiting list for season tickets).

The football club believes that, while awaiting a decision, the authorities should undertake some improvements. During a recent meeting, the main representatives of the club (José María Muñoz and Kike Pérez), Mayor Francisco de la Torre and head of the provincial authority Francisco Salado addressed the issue.

What are the major problems with the stadium that they intend to solve? Aside from it being too small for a city and province like Malaga, they believe it would be essential to complete the structural work that construction left unfinished.

Another short-term task is to update the field lighting with LED lights, which would allow for significant energy savings, in addition to the advantages it offers in normal operation (in other stadiums, you can see the light shows at the beginning of matches or during them).

These and other issues surfaced some time ago, but the owners found no concrete solution, largely because it was almost unnecessary given the imminent stadium renovations for the 2030 World Cup. However, the recent withdrawal leaves the future uncertain, as the option of renovating the existing stadium as part of the new initiative to build a new stadium for the future cannot be ruled out.

In any case, the projects will undoubtedly have a lengthy construction period and Malaga certainly couldn't afford to wait.

The stadium isn't particularly old: it was built just over 20 years ago, but it has barely changed since. The biggest problem lies in the fact that the facility opened with some notable deficiencies due to the austerity measures of the project.

This allowed the club and the city to have a new stadium, built in stages over about four years, but at a relatively low cost at the time (around 36 million euros). The team continued playing at La Rosaleda during the construction.

In fact, some important elements were missing and have not been addressed, such as waterproofing a large part of the pitch. Not to mention several promised aesthetic improvements that never came to light, such as prominently displaying the stadium's name.

While the owners have invested in other prominent facilities in the city, they have barely invested in the Martiricos stadium, presumably assuming that Málaga CF should handle everything since maintenance was assigned to them.

The club, which pays a fee for using the stadium (100,000 euros to each of the three institutions), has taken charge of day-to-day operations and some renovations. Some of the remaining work or projects that have emerged over the years are more structural and costly and the club expects the owners to carry them out.

The maintenance costs are around two million euros per season, including essential expenses for football operations and minor renovations. The club hopes the owners will pay for these renovations to modernise the stadium while awaiting the construction of a new ground or the remodelling of the existing stadium.