Palma's deputy mayor for urban planning, José Hila, believes that it is highly unlikely that any agreement can be reached on the purchase of the site of the former Lluís Sitjar Stadium during what remains of the period of the current town hall administration.
The town hall does have an agreement, and this is with the former occupants of the stadium, Real Mallorca. Under this, the town hall would pay nine million euros for the land. The snag is that the club only have a 32% ownership. The association of co-owners has the rest, and there is no agreement with the association regarding the valuation. Hila says that "miracles don't exist" and that he doesn't wish "to raise false expectations".
For the deputy mayor, negotiations would be a great deal easier if there were a single "interlocutor". This is what happened with the Estadi Balear. The club (Atletic Balears) and the co-owners formed a single body. With the Lluís Sitjar site, discussions have been conducted separately. "This takes up a great deal of time. I won't say that the matter will be resolved in a couple of months, because it won't be. The town hall has the will to resolve it, as do Real Mallorca, but we need the other party to agree."
Hila stresses that the land will be incorporated into a green space and that it won't be for building speculation. Expropriation, he notes, may be the only way round the problem.