Malaga Football Club Museum sees a surge in visitors

There is a growing trend in football club museums. These museums represent a brand new type of tourism: sports tourism. Many sports fans make the most out of their travels by visiting the local stadium or team showcases.

Barcelona and Real Madrid have museums that receive over a million visitors each year. This makes them two of the most popular cultural destinations in Spain.

Malaga CF Museum is experiencing a boom in terms of visitors. Last year, the museum received 25,000 visitors (double what it was last year). The museum’s revenue is estimated to be 250,000 euros with an average ticket of 10 euros. Admission is 12 euros for adults, and 7 euros for children aged 4-14 years.

The football museum is different from other museums in that it requires a guide. Because of the influx of tourists who visit Malaga all year round (according the staff at Martiricos, 80 percent of visitors are from abroad), guides offer tours both in Spanish and English.

The museum’s core audience is made up of schoolchildren. The school year is just beginning for primary school pupils. According to the club’s explanation, from October, they get around five visits per week. This continues until the end the school year, as well as the sport season.

Museum staff confirms that national visitors increase during Easter or Christmas, but say many come from the UK and other European countries, such as the Netherlands, Denmark or Germany.

Malaga is the target audience for this attraction. In recent years, every season ticket holder campaign has included discounted museum visits in order to win the loyalty of more than 26,000 Blue and Whites supporters. They say it’s a different experience to going to La Rosaleda each weekend and they are working on making the museum even more immersive.

There are many areas in the museum

The first thing you see during the visit are the paintings of all the ‘Siempre Fuerte’ awards by the artist José Luis Puche, who also designs the armbands worn by the footballers every match, which pay homage to the different villages and towns of the province.

There are also the trophies. Malaga’s Intertoto, won in 2007, promoted the club to the UEFA Europa League where they lost to Boavista but eliminated Leeds United on the way. There are also several other summer leagues that have elevated the club’s status, such as the native Trofeo Costa del Sol or the Ramón de Carranza.

It is clear that the section dedicated the Champions League campaign of Malaga is the most impressive. Malaga’s football shirts are displayed, as well as those of the six European opponents they faced during that time (Porto in the qualifying round, Zenit in the final, Anderlecht in the semifinals, Milan in the final, and Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League).

A section has been installed recently that shows Malaga’s Promotion to the Second Division by 2024. It includes a mural with symbolic photos from that campaign, such as the team’s celebration and various items such as Antoñito’s and Roberto’s boots, Alfonso Herrero’s gloves, the armband worn by Genaro and the trophy that Pellicer recieved for best coach in Group 2 of the Primera RFEF.

There is another section that pays tribute to Malaga sportsmen and women: Carolina Navarro, Damián Quintero or Sole López; another section dedicated to women’s football, displaying their titles; to the Spanish national team and the Blue and Whites footballers who made it internationally, as well as milestones, records and details of players (for instance a letter from striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, in which he bid farewell to Malaga and to football).

There’s also a corridor that has a time line from 1904 up to the present day, which shows the club’s development. The club has shirts of players from different eras, as well trophies and other symbols.