January 15 – FC Barcelona’s financial difficulties are well documented, and the search for cash has at times seemed like a selling of the family jewels, however the club announced that they have eased financial concerns after raising an initial €100 million ($102m) from the sale of 30-year ‘season tickets’ in the VIP section of its revamped Camp Nou stadium.
How €100 million will ease financial concerns is a question that only the bean counters in Barcelona’s accounting office can answer though.
Currently, the club has debts of more than €1billion ($1bn; £859m) and are also financing a €1.5 billion redevelopment of the Camp Nou, which has since risen to $1.7 billion.
With the stadium not being fully operational until 2026 it is unclear at what point the 9,600 VIP seats will be occupied.
The proposed VIP deal has been somewhat shrouded in mystery.
It had been reported that a Qatari company and a Dubai-based firm from the United Arab Emirates had finalised an agreement for a combined value of approximately €100 million, however Mundo Deportivo, said that Barca had not sold the VIP seats to the aforementioned entities for the €100 million sum but instead, the agreement had granted the investor the rights to use these seats for 20 years, allowing them to generate profit from their use.
Additionally, the agreement was supposed to include the clause to allow Barca to receive an annual payment of around €25,000 per seat per season.
Confused? You should be!
Supposedly, this pyramid enables the club to secure the €100 million upfront without jeopardising future earnings.
This is not the first time Barca have mortgaged off valuable assets for a number that would make almost any club other than their La Liga rivals, Real Madrid, blush. Two years ago, the team with the motto ‘Més que un club’ – ‘More than a club’ – cozied up to the Swedish audio streaming platform, Spotify.
The four-year contract, which kicked in from the 2022/23 campaign, saw Spotify designated as Barca’s main partner, handing it front-of-shirt branding for the men’s and women’s teams. Also, for the first time in Barca’s history, the deal will also see their iconic stadium rebranded, taking on the name of ‘Spotify Camp Nou’.
The full financial terms of this contract were not revealed, however, at the time Catalan radio station RAC1, pegged the value of the deal at about €280 million (US$308 million), equating to €70 million ($76.9 million) per year.
By way of comparison, Barca’s original arrangement with Japanese commerce firm Rakuten, whose deal expired at the end of the 2020 season, was worth approximately €55 million ($60.5 million) annually when it was signed in 2016.
With the January transfer window open, Barca are not expected to add to the €55 million they spent on Dani Olmo, whose registration snafu was the talk of European football last week.
Contact the writer of this story, Nick Webster, at moc.l1736927294labto1736927294ofdlr1736927294owedi1736927294sni@o1736927294fni1736927294