La Liga official site…www.lfp.es [translated].
The map page shows the 3 clubs that were promoted in Spain, in June 2010, from the Segunda División to La Liga, for the 2010-11 season. 3 or 4 photos of each club’s stadium are shown on the map page, along with club info.
{2010-11 La Liga at en.wikipedoa.org}.
{Segunda División 2010-11 map from en.wikipedia.org}.
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Real Sociedad won the 2009-10 Segunda División title and return to La Liga after 3 seasons in the second division. Real Sociedad de Fútbol are from the Basque Country city of San Sebastián, which is on the southern coast of the Bay Of Biscay.
San Sebastián has a metropolitan area population of around 393,000 {European Spatial Planning Network figure from 2007; see this list}. San Sebastián is the 17th largest metro area in Spain, and the fourth largest city in the Greater Basque Region [Bilbao is the largest Basque city {see this}]. The Greater Region of the Basque Country [as defined by Basque nationalists] {see this} includes two political divisions of Spain…the Basque Country, and the Autonomous Community of Navarre; as well as three small historical provinces in France (which is sometimes called the Northern Basque country)…Lower Navarre, Labourd, and Soule.
Real Sociedad were one of the founding members, in 1929, of the first season of La Liga (which had 10 clubs playing 18 matches, and was won by Barcelona) {1929 – first season of Primera División [aka La Liga]}.
Real Sociedad has played 63 seasons in La Liga, and have two national titles to their name…back-to-back La Liga championships in 1980-81 and 1981-82. Real Sociedad have won 2 Copa del Rey titles. The two were won almost 8 decades apart…their first in 1909 [which preceded the club's official formation, but this title is ascribed by most to Real Sociedad] , and their second in 1987.
In 2002-03, a third La Liga title was within Real Sociedad’s grasp, but the Txuri-Urdin, or white-blue, agonizingly lost first place to Real Madrid on the 37th match day. That Real Sociedad squad featured local talent and Spanish national team World Cup winner Xabi Alonso, and the Turkish striker Nihat Kahveci. The club never recovered from that… they finished 15th the following season, and then had finishes of 14th place, then 16th place, and then 19th place and relegation in 2007.
Real Sociedad have a pretty sizable fan base. In their failed title run of 2002-03, they averaged 27,743 per game, and when they got relegted 4 seasons later, they drew 23,076. Last season in their promotion campaign, they drew 19,927 per game, second highest in the Segunda División (behind only the faltering, underacheiving giants Real Betis, who drew 28,730 for their second season in their latest spell in the second tier).
Real Sociedad play at Anoeta, which opened in 1993. Anoeta is one of those faceless structures which is basically a concrete doughnut. The 32,000-capacity municipal facility is also marred by it’s running track. The club had attempted to have a redevelopment of Anoeta, including an expansion and a removal of the running track, but the city government rejected that proposal 6 years ago. Anoeta is also sometimes used by two Basque rugby clubs, Biarritz (who are based just across the border in France), and Bayonne (also based in France). Here is another photo of Anoeta, from the Soccerway.com site {Real Sociedad/Venue at www.soccerway.com}.
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The other two clubs promoted to the 2010-11 La Liga are both from the Valencian Autonomous Community… Levante UD, who are from the city of Valencia, and Hércules CF, who are from the city of Alicante.
{Valencian Community [en.wikipedia.org]} ; {Valencian Community @ All About Spain site}.
Second place in the 2009-10 Segunda División were Valencian club Levante. [Valencia is the fourth largest city in Spain, and the third-largest metropolitan area. Valencia has a city population of around 814,000 {2009 figure}, and, as Valencia-Sagunto, it has a metro area population of around 1.5 million {ESOPN figure, 2007}.
Levante UD have only played 5 seasons in La Liga, and their fan base is dwarfed by local rivals Valencia CF...Levante drew only 7,814 per game last season, and during their last 2-season-spell in the top flight, they drew 16,799 per game in 2006-07 and 12,330 per game in 2007-08. If that 07/08 figure looks pretty low compared to the 06/07 figure, that's because most everyone knew that Levante were doomed to be relegated in 2008, seeing as how they were in a huge financial mess, and evidently had only been paying their players around 20% of their wages (wages were eventually payed via a quasi-testimonial match). Levante play at the municipal stadium, Ciutat de Valencia, which has a capacity of 23,500 and looks like it would be nice place to see a match, with deecnt, backed seats in stands pretty close to the pitch; and for a dry part of Spain it still does feature a certain percentage of covered seats (the second link right below shows a photo with a roofed part of the stand). Here is a good panoramic photo of 'Nou Estadi Ciutat de Valencia (Levante UD) ', by Sascha Drenth at Panoramio.com . {Levante/Venue at Soccerway.com}.
Levante do have one major title to their name, but seeing as they won the Copa de La España Libre title back in 1937, which was during the Spanish Civil War, and which ended up being a one-time only competition that comprised just 4 teams, you might want to put an asterisk next to that trophy. There were no La Liga seasons for three years (1936-37, 1937-38, and 1938-39), and there was no Cop del Rey competrition in 1937 and 1938. In 1937 Franco's army controlled several areas of the country (in the north and the south) which meant clubs from Seville (Real Betis and Sevilla), the Basque Country (Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad), and Galicia (Celta Vigo and Deportivo La Coruña) were cut off from clubs in the Republican-controlled areas. There were just 12 clubs in La Liga back then, so that meant half the league was cut off from the other half. The Republican strongholds included 3 of the 4 major cities...Madrid, Barcelona, and Valencia, and a good portion of the surrounding countryside. So La Liga was suspended for 3 seasons, and the Copa del Rey for 2 seasons. In the place of the League was the Mediterranean League (1937, won by Barcelona) and then the Catalan League (never completed). In place of the national Cup in 1937 was the Copa de la España Libre. Barcelona (wisely , I would say) opted to not enter this competition, and FC Barcelona toured Mexico that summer. In their place went Levante, and Levante went on the beat Valencia 1-0 in the final at Monjuic in Barcelona on 18 July, 1937. The 4 clubs that competed in the Copa de la España Libre {see this} were Valencia, Espanyol, Levante, and a small club from the Catalonian city of Girona, Girona FC. [Girona have never been in the top flight and are currently in Segunda División. Girona is 85 km. northeast of Barcelona].
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Hércules, who have played 19 seasons of La Liga football, won the third promotion spot, and will return to La Liga after a 13-year absence (which included 5 seasons in the third division from 2000 to 2005). Hércules CF are from the Valencian Community city of Alicante, which is part of the Alicante-Elche metropolitan area, and is the 8th largest metro area in Spain, with a metro population of around 793,000 {ESOPN figure, 2007}. The city of Alicante itself has a population of around 335,000 {2009 figure}. Alicante is 125 km. (78 miles) south-west of Valencia. Hérclues play at the 30,000-capacity Estadio José Rico Pérez, which might seem rather large for a club that has yet to play two decades worth of seasons in the top top flight (a third division club, Alicante CF, also uses the stadium). But the Estadio José Rico Pérez (built in 1974) is that large because it was one of the venues for the 1982 World Cup. Anyway, seeing as how Hércules drew 14,186 per game last season, and factoring in the inevitable post-promotion-attendance-increase, I don’t think the stadium will be that empty this season. Here is another photo of the stadium {Hércules/Venue at Soccerway.com}. It looks like a stadium in Argentina, with the one tall and steep stand, and all the stands so close to the pitch.
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Thanks to the contributors to the pages at en.wikipedi.org and es.wikipedia.org,
2010-11 La Liga.
Primera División de España [es.wikipedia.org].
Thanks to Soccerway.com, for the 09/10 final table.
Thanks to Demis.nl, for the blank map of Spain. demis.nl/home.
Thanks to E-F-S site, for attendance figures, E-F-S, attendances/Espana.
![PSG/Parc des Princes photo…here in full, city-wide view [which includes Eiffel Tower]](http://www.bouygues.com/cms/bouygues/upload/diaporama-histoire/visuel_parc-des-princes-dr.jpg){kind=link}
