Only a short time after it was announced that there will be a two-year extension to the naming rights agreement for Real Mallorca's stadium, two of the parties which form the administration at the Council of Mallorca say that they will vote against it.
Més and Podemos are partners with PSOE, but it would seem that they weren't involved in negotiations for an agreement worth 1,815,000 euros to maintain the Visit Mallorca name for the stadium. As well as not having participated in the negotiations, they aren't in favour of the promotion that the agreement represents.
Aurora Ribot of Podemos, one of two vice-presidents at the Council of Mallorca, said on Tuesday that "we will vote no to a proposal that we only learned about a few hours ago". "Beating the record for tourists year after year, it is not necessary to increase promotion. Instead, it is necessary to rethink how to make the model more sustainable. The promotion could be justified in terms of addressing tourism seasonality and seeking tourism with greater added value. But this is not the objective of the agreement with Real Mallorca. It's not a bad idea to support our team and use a platform as large as the Spanish first division. But we must convey the message we want; one that does not endanger our future."
The Council of Mallorca is one of three bodies that will pay for the naming rights - the Balearic government and Palma town hall, both with the same political representation in their administrations, are the other two. But the Council is the lead partner in that it has responsibility for the tourism promotion of Mallorca.
The Mallorca Tourism Foundation, a Council of Mallorca entity, is in charge of this promotion. This foundation has political representation from all the parties which have councillors - PSOE, Més, Podemos and the opposition parties, namely the Partido Popular, Vox, Ciudadanos and El Pi. A meeting of the foundation will vote on what had appeared to have already been a done deal.