How RCD Mallorca Rebounded To LaLiga With NBA Links
November 1, 2019
Two years ago RCD Mallorca were playing in the third tier of Spanish football, however following back to back promotions they have taken a huge league back up into LaLiga, Spain’s premier division.
The club has last competed in LaLiga in the 2012/13 season, but a new management model from CEO Maheta Molango has turned the club around.
Former NBA superstar Steve Nash, a lifelong football fan, joined up with Robert Sarver and Andy Kohlberg, owners of the Phoenix Suns NBA franchise, to buy Mallorca in 2016 and instigate this turnaround.
“The bridge between the best league in the world in terms of football, which is LaLiga, and the NBA, I think makes us a very special club,” Molango said of the Phoenix Suns connection.
Mallorca have taken the NBA model to create their own fan zones around games, with entertainment outside beforehand, as well as a ‘VIP corner’ in the stadium. This is used in a similar way to courtside seats in the NBA, where fans sit right next the court. At Mallorca, fans can watch the games from special VIP sections next to the pitch, rather than standard hospitality up in the main stand.
“We try to be ahead of the curve, we want to be innovative,” Molango said of these ideas, “We understand that the stadium doesn’t have to just be a place to watch football every two weeks, but it’s a place to hold events and conferences and those sorts of things. We believe that the experience of the stadium should be good and we have implemented some very creative things like the VIP Corner.”
The full story: RCD Mallorca: How the LaLiga island club put itself back on the map
