Real Murcia's stadium will continue to bear the name "Enrique Roca" after the club and a businessman reached an agreement on a new contract. It's a rather unexpected ending after months of negotiations, strong words and the specter of a broken contract and lawsuit.

New contract, old name

Real Murcia and businessman Enrique Roca Fernández have reached an agreement on a new stadium naming rights deal. The venue will continue to bear the name Estadio Enrique Roca de Murcia until 2029. According to La Verdad, the new contract includes at least 45% higher stadium naming rights fees than the previous one:

• €220k per year in the Primera RFEF
• €500k per year in the Segunda División
• €1 million per year in the Primera División

According to Murcia Plaza from 2019-2023, Enrique Roca paid €150,000 per year for naming the stadium after himself. Estadio Enrique Roca de Murcia is the largest stadium at the semi-professional level, which is considered to be the Primera, Segunda and Tercera of the RFEF.

The club is currently in the Primera RFEF (the third level of the national competition), but is not abandoning its ambition to return to professional soccer after relegation from Segunda in 2013/14 and a crisis from which it is only just recovering.

© Juanjo Abenza

Laborious negotiations

The conclusion of the deal was preceded by lengthy negotiations, first reported in December 2023. As Onda Regional Murcia reported, Real Murcia's president wanted to bring the partnership to an end, believing that the sums were too low, which hurt the club's finances, strained by million-dollar debts, the repayment of which is a priority for president Felipe Moreno.

Court approval of the club's Restructuring Plan would have allowed the club to terminate the contract unilaterally as well, without paying the full amount of damages.The businessman, in turn, wanted to activate a clause allowing the contract to be extended until 2039 without changing the fees for the stadium's naming rights.

© Juanjo Abenza

"Thank you, Mr. Roca"

The difference in attitudes between the two sides was all too apparent. There was no shortage of accusations and public declarations, such as the one made by the club president. When I have an alternative, I will call Enrique to pick up his letters, - said Felipe Moreno, as quoted by ORM. There were reportedly two offers on his table that were significantly higher than the contract with Roca’'s companies.

On Thursday, however, the club announced in a statement that an agreement had been reached and expressed appreciation for the attitude of Enrique Roca, who had brought about dialogue and resolution of the conflict away from the courts. The statement, a string of praise for the businessman, ends with the words Thank you, Mr. Roca.