Eibar, Spain Mayor Miguel de los Toyos said that the city is working on a plan to "increase its exposure following local club Eibar's 'historic' promotion to La Liga," according to Borja Rodríguez of MARCA. The club's promotion "represents not only an epic sports accomplishment, but also opens an important range of possibilities for the city, its hospitality industry and its businesses." De los Toyos: "As soon as we confirmed promotion, we started work on a plan with a consultant with the aim of learning how the city can benefit, and we already have in our hands a document with some important outlines." Hospitality and gastronomy "are strong points in Eibar." De los Toyos has held meetings to "address how the city can take advantage of Eibar competing in La Liga." He said, "One has to understand that for big cities, 1,000 fans from a visiting team does not mean much, but for our city, with a population of 27,000, it means a lot of people, and we want the whole world to feel at ease in Eibar and have fond memories of the city. We have talked with the big malls about providing parking spaces on gamedays and they have agreed. We will add 1,000 parking spaces every game, and also, there will be volunteers in the streets to facilitate the arrival of visitors." On days when the club has home games, "there will be events to liven up the city" and for the first La Liga match, against Real Sociedad, "there are already plans to organize a large meal and performance by street clowns" (MARCA, 7/30).
