October 28 – One of football’s grandest theatres, the Camp Nou, in Barcelona, won’t reopen as expected. Barca fans will now have to wait until the 2025-26 season to return to their spiritual home.
The renovations were slated to be completed by November of 2024 but that timeline has been pushed as unexpected delays mean that the team will now be playing at the Estadio Olimpic at least into 2025.
On June 1, 2023 the club began construction on an ambitious project to completely transform the Camp Nou into Europe’s largest stadium. As always, their bitter rivalry with Real Madrid played a huge part in this decision after Real’s staggering $1.91 billion investment in improving the Santiago Bernabeu.
The plan is to increase the stadium capacity to more than 100,000 and to develop more revenue streams around corporate hospitality and the surrounding areas of stadium – the Espai Barca.
The club’s president, Joan Laporta, said on the Barca One Podcast. “We’ll return to Camp Nou at the start of 2025,” though he refrained from committing to any specific date. The start of 2025, according to insiders, is ambitious.
Vice President Elena Fort added, “There are no exact dates to return to the stadium. We can’t confirm anything right now, but we are on the right path”. These statements reflect the club’s effort to manage expectations as setbacks continue to arise.
Any further delays will massively impact the financial health of the club, which in recent years has being on the verge of bankruptcy. The relocation to the Olympic Stadium has seen revenue losses surpassing $108 million annually, according to club statements. The temporary stadium’s smaller capacity and associated logistical adjustments have hindered Barcelona’s usual revenue streams from ticket sales, hospitality, and stadium-related business.
The unspoken fear for Barca is the final price tab for the renovation. Real Madrid expected to initially pay around €500 million for the Bernabeu and the costs exploded. The club from the capital now expects the stadium to be paid off by 2053 at an annual cost of €66 million.
The delay will impact Barca’s revenue and budget but with Laporta having scrambled to sell off tranches of the club’s assets, including chunks of the club’s media production arm, he is running out of ‘financial levers’ to keep banks, creditors and LaLiga’s financial rules happy.
At this moment, Barca, has agreed to a price tag of €1.45 billion (approximately $1.6 billion).
The financing has been agreed with a total of 20 investors and includes different instalments to be paid progressively over 5, 7, 9, 20, and 24 years. It is hoped that the new facility will generate around €247 million per year, however, given Barcelona’s track record of financial mismanagement don’t be surprised if this puts some serious strain on the administrative team and their fans.
Contact the writer of this story, Nick Webster, at moc.l1732183038labto1732183038ofdlr1732183038owedi1732183038sni@o1732183038fni1732183038