The year 2021 was supposed to be a special year for La Liga side Deportivo Alaves as they were completing a hundred years of existence.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic has somewhat dampened the celebratory mood at the club who are now slowly establishing themselves in the first division in Spain.
In fact, the visit of Real Madrid to their home venue of Mendizorrotza Stadium on January 24, just one day after their foundation day was the perfect way to mark their centenary celebrations. However, due to restrictions brought about by the pandemic, this ended up becoming a subdued affair.
"Our centenary has coincided with the situation (pandemic) so obviously for us, it is not at all good and very unpleasant because our fans are the best asset of the club and we would really like to celebrate our centenary with them. We were fortunate enough to play a match with Real Madrid at home around the time of our foundation day and that would have been our centenary match but of course we had to play it without anyone in the stands," said Alaves president Alfonso Fernandez de Troconiz during a virtual press conference on Wednesday.
Alaves were one of the teams that were part of the first La Liga season back in 1929 but they have had a roller-coaster journey over the years and it is only recently that they have been establishing themselves as a first division club in Spain. Other high points for the club have been reaching the UEFA Cup final in the 2000/01 season and the Cop del Rey final in 2017.
The pandemic hasn't helped their cause as it is the mid- to lower-level clubs who are most affected and Alaves are among the teams trying to weather the Covid-19 storm.
"The history of Alaves has been full of ups and downs. People have even questioned the club's survival. In the last five years, we've been in the first division. We don't want it to be an anecdote that we were in the first division once," said Fernandez.
While reflecting on how the revenue streams of the club have been affected due to the pandemic, Fernandez said that they have been heavily dependent on broadcast income.
"At the end of the day, the broadcasting rights are the source that mainly finances the clubs. Except maybe three or four teams like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla and maybe Real Betis, all the other teams depend on broadcasting rights income. It's been true that since 2015, there has been a modification in the distribution here and centralised sale of the broadcasting rights. We would like the distribution to be much more equal but we have to work, not just Deportivo Alaves but other clubs to make sure that we have less dependency on broadcasting rights and try to find other sources of revenue."
He added: "About 85% of our budget comes from TV rights. Basically, on the one hand, the fact that we get no people into the stadiums means our season ticket holders can't come and we are not getting any revenue from ticketing and our sponsors. We don't have the same sponsor contracts as before and all the clubs have suffered from a reduction in the broadcasting rights. Hope things get back to normal soon," he said.