On Monday, Barcelona announced that it had raised the necessary funding for one of its biggest projects, with which it aims to improve the economic situation of the Catalan club in the coming years.
Juan Laporta’s administration has received 1.45 billion euros ($1.6 billion) to fund the Camp Nou renovation plan, due to begin June 1.
The club said in a statement that it has raised money from deals with 20 investors who will be compensated over periods ranging from 5 to 24 years, adding that it will start repaying loans once the works are completed.
In addition to the football stadium, the plan for this huge project called Espay Barka includes spending on other club facilities.
It will allocate 420 million euros for the club’s basketball and handball stadium, known as the Palo Blaugrana, in addition to 20 million euros for the Johan Cruyff Stadium, where the men’s and women’s reserve teams play.
The Catalan club have said they expect the Camp Nou to be completed by 2026.
The men’s first team will play at the Olympic Stadium in Montjuïc before returning to the Camp Nou for the 2024/2025 season, which is not yet at full capacity.
Barcelona is following in the footsteps of rivals Real Madrid, which began renovating the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in 2019.
The club emerged from a financial crisis that resulted in a €481m loss in the 2020-21 season, leading to the departure of the Argentine club’s historic top scorer Lionel Messi.
The club raised around €750m last summer by selling 25% of the television rights to its La Liga matches for the next 25 years and 49% of Barcelona’s studios.
Source: “Wakalat”
