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I am of course referring to the "airport without planes", Aeroport Castellon. It turns out the airport spent €30 million promoting itself since it was dreamed up:
How a plane-less airport spent 30 million euros on ads · ELPAÍS.com in English
Quite a sculpture, this 75-foot high thing outside the unused airport:
The sculpture inspired by Carlos Fabra - ELPAÍS.com
The artist has denied it is a portrait and says he's not making money off it in today's Cadena Ser, it shoujd be noted.
There's another photo of it with the news that it will take an additional €4m to finish the airport and make 'safety changes', etc. And, there are now legal proceedings revolving around contracts between the airport's owner and the company formed to operate the airport. So, no prospect of flights there any time soon, or perhaps ever. Spain has way too many airports as it is, low-cost airlines have been receiving large subsidies to fly to most of them, and now the money has run out. I still like the logo on the shirt, though...can't help it...
The value of the former Villarreal shirt sponsorship from the airport authority is given here as €2.3 million, I assume per year. This is actually less than had been reported in the same paper in the fall:
La Liga's sponsorship flight · ELPAÍS.com in English
I don't mean to turn this into some sort of economics blog, but it is important to understand the economic context La Liga clubs are operating in at the moment. It hasn't gotten much attention here, but the Valencia regional government was late with a debt payment last week and apparently the Spanish government had to step in to assist in the "liquidity crisis":
Spain's Valencia Pays Deutsche Bank Loan Late - WSJ.com
Government forced to step in to stop Valencia debt default · ELPAÍS.com in English
The Valencian regional government, and Catalonian government too, want to renegotiate or even cancel the contracts for Grand Prix racing in Valencia and Barcelona. No idea how much the regional government is paying Villarreal, Elche and Levante to wear the palm tree logo and "Comunitat Valenciana", but I hope not very much, otherwise it's likely to get scrutinized and cut as well.
You may have noticed Valencia players promoted the team shop on their shirtfronts on Sunday, having displayed the team's official twitter account earlier in the year!