The choice of timing for the last press conference of the mayor of Zaragoza, Natalia Chueca (PP), on a Friday afternoon, predicted the worst. And his words confirmed it: the reform of the La Romareda stadium, a project surrounded by total opacity for the municipal opposition, an initiative which would initially only require private capital, which will then amount to 80 million public euros, will ultimately cost more than 150 million – without VAT – to the coffers of the City of Zaragoza and the Government of Aragon.
And the numbers could get even worse. This is the story of Operation Romareda, the last chapter of which offered an almost Orwellian situation: the mayor tried to camouflage the additional 72 million euros that the two institutions must provide under the argument of an economy ” between 35 and 50 million euros. interest.
With the current picture, of the 169 million to which Chueca estimated the entire investment – between the renovation of the field, the portable stadium and operating expenses – at least 152 will be public money, while the property of Real Zaragoza put in 12.8 million (6 as an initial contribution and 6.8 this year). When will the club close this gap? “When the company starts to have income, with the land already built,” said the mayor, although there is no more commitment than her words.
It should be remembered that, according to the statutes of the company La Nueva Romareda, the income from the operation of the stadium goes directly to the club, which will pay the company for this concept an annual contribution of between €500,000 and €3,000,000. per year plus between 3% and 5% of income. Meanwhile, income from tertiary uses – the commercial area – will go to the company La Nueva Romareda, created for the development of the project and made up of the Town Hall, the Regional Executive and the club itself.
With these data, the panorama looks very profitable for Real Zaragoza: according to a preliminary study by the consultancy firm IDOM – present in most of the projects linked to the new Romareda -, the incremental operational result that the stadium can generate will be d About 14 million per year, of which only 2.4 million would come from the commercial sector. And this despite the fact that she invested much less money since, therefore, her percentage in the company is lower.
“A black hole of public money”
On the opposition side, the reaction to Chueca’s announcement on Friday was outrage at the “lack of transparency” and “opacity”, a constant complaint from the PSOE and Zaragoza en Común (ZEC) since the launch of the project. Neither party is part of La Nueva Romareda. “This seriously compromises the budget and the future of the city for years to come,” lamented the socialists. “The campaigns are a real black hole of public money,” they attack from the ZEC.
There remains the question of VAT, from which, according to the PP governments, the two institutions would be exempt. They associate it with a figure called inversion of the taxable material, according to which, in works like the renovation of the stadium, the successful bidder would not even have to include this tax in the invoice. The tax experts consulted admit that it is likely that both the Government of Aragon and the Zaragoza City Council could benefit, although it will be necessary to know in detail “what the economic model is”. To do this, it will be necessary to sign the “contractual relationship” which, according to the statutes of La Nueva Romareda, will specify “the technical and economic conditions” which will govern the management of the land; In other words, it specifies to what extent the club must contribute to society for the operation of the stadium and for what.
An old desire always accompanied by tumult
The renovation of the stadium which houses Real Zaragoza is an old desire of the Town Hall, always accompanied by tumult. Almost all companies have proposed it this century, but either the municipal opposition – the PP twenty years ago, for example – or the economic situation – the crisis of 2008 – ended up ruining the dream.
Until Jorge Azcón.
The current regional president showed how far he was capable of going even before becoming mayor: on the day of the closing of the campaign for the 2019 municipal elections, he presented on the lawn of the same stadium – and with the connivance of the club – a project to reform La Romareda for 70 million euros. Real Zaragoza has received a barrage of criticism from parties and supporters. Azcón lost the elections, but became mayor with the support of Ciudadanos.
During the first half of his mandate, the project seemed to have stalled, but in the spring of 2022 a fundamental event occurred: an investment group led by Cuban-American businessman Jorge Mas acquired Real Zaragoza SAD. Only one person was reiterated to the board of directors: the builder Juan Forcén, who had – and maintains – a close friendship with Azcón for years. The new Romareda has started to refuel. Just two weeks after the club’s change of hands was announced, the then-mayor publicly announced that he was choosing to renovate the current stadium instead of looking for a new location. “Technical criteria,” he argued.
The new managers of the club assure us that the viability of the construction is guaranteed without the Town Hall having to make any disbursements
Jorge Azcon
— November 2022
During this year 2022, the question of financing has been relegated. Without specifying it, Azcón spoke during these months of “public-private collaboration” and was delighted that the construction would not fall “on the taxes of the inhabitants of Zaragoza”. But the deadlines to reach the 2030 World Cup were getting shorter and shorter and decisions had to be made.
Just two years ago, during the debate on the state of the city, Azcón launched its proposal for the new field on an electoral basis: the City Hall would launch a call for tenders in the first half of 2023 for the construction and the exploitation of the field through urban modification. The exploitation of tertiary (commercial) uses by the successful bidders would be used to finance the field. The people of Zaragoza – and the people of Aragon – have been freed from the million-dollar bill for the stadium. Or so they thought.
But this “simple” and “calm” formula, as defined by the Minister of Urban Planning, Víctor Serrano – then in Cs, today integrated into the ranks of the PP – has spread in the club itself: the ownership of Real Zaragoza alleged that the figures They failed to find this equation and demanded that instead of 40 years, the exploitation be extended to 75 years, thanks to the surface right formula. This option, defended by the municipal council, guaranteed that the financing would be entirely private.
The PSOE considered this a “privatization” of the municipal stadium, but did not advocate not hindering the operation. However, the Podemos municipal group appealed the specifications to the Administrative Court of Public Procurement of Aragon, TACPA. This administrative body ruled in favor of the purple formation at the beginning of July and declared “the nullity of the call for tenders procedure”; Barely two weeks later, the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon heard the appeal of the Zaragoza City Council and temporarily suspended the TACPA decision: the call for tenders for the stadium was able to continue.
And September arrived. Just one day before the deadline for submitting bids to the public tender for the construction of the pitch expired, and with that of Real Zaragoza as the only proposal, the club made its resignation public. He attributed this to the “legal uncertainty” created by Podemos’ appeal, in force for 16 days. Goodbye to the dream of financing the stadium with private resources.
But there was no problem in reaching an agreement between the Regional Executive and the Zaragoza City Hall, already governed by the same party, the PP. President Azcón comfortably tailored his speech to justify financing campaigns with public funds and blamed the left for everything.
In December last year, the company La Nueva Romareda SL was finally created with a paid-up capital of 50.5 million euros: 24.5 million from the City Hall, 20 from the Government of Aragon and 6 from Real Zaragoza . The initial commitment that each partner would contribute €40 million has now been shattered, but only in the form of an additional investment of public money. And the work has only just begun. The final bill has not yet been drafted.
