Spanish LaLiga club RCD Mallorca’s new naming rights deal with Visit Mallorca has been shelved due to concerns about over-promotion of the island as a tourist destination.
While the Council of Mallorca said it will honour its share of the €1.5m (£1.27m/$1.55m) deal to back the Son Moix stadium, the tourism board’s brand name has been dropped after opposition from one of the three parties that comprise the province’s ruling administration.
According to local media reports, a new name for the top-tier club’s 23,000-capacity stadium will be proposed that expresses the “social and sporting values that represent Mallorca”.
The Visit Mallorca deal was announced as recently as August 10 after being brokered by Catalina Cladera, the president of the Council of Mallorca, and her PSOE party colleague, Andreu Serra, the tourism councillor.
However, coalition member Més threatened to break the coalition with PSOE and Podemos unless the naming rights deal was changed. Més officials have expressed concern about the number of tourists already visiting the island and did not want to promote further growth.
The club’s home has been known as Visit Mallorca Estadi for the past two seasons, with RCD Mallorca having originally donated the rights in June 2020 as a means to help Mallorca’s tourism economy recover from the impact of COVID-19.
The deal announced between the club and Council of Mallorca last week maintained the stadium’s name for the 2022-23 season and also granted various promotion and advertising rights related to the team, both in the Spanish and international markets. The rights were reported to be worth €1.5m to the club, with the Council of Mallorca, through the FMT, contributing €750,000 of this sum, with the Government of the Balearic Islands and Palma City Council also adding €500,000 and €250,000, respectively.
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