Barça home VIP boxes sale could jingle coffers

Image: FC Barcelona

The LaLiga club FC Barcelona (Spain) can receive a cash injection worth a total $173 million (€160 million), according to Catalunya Radio’s popular Tot Costa program, which cited anonymous sources.

‘Forbes’ stated that despite the renovation of the club’s iconic home ground – the Spotify Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain – not being set for completion until November 2025, Tot Costa explained that 62 VIP boxes there have been put up for sale to companies for the next 10 years.

The FC Barcelona, commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça, is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in LaLiga, the top flight of Spanish football.

The Spotify Camp Nou is a stadium in Barcelona (Spain) and the home arena of the LaLiga club FC Barcelona since its opening in 1957. It is currently undergoing renovation, and with a planned increased seating capacity of 105,000, it will be the stadium with the largest capacity in Spain and Europe, and the second largest football stadium in the world.

The FC Barcelona is currently playing at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys due to renovation work underway at the Spotify Camp Nou.

The 55,926-capacity Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys is a stadium in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Originally built in 1927 for the 1929 International Exposition in the City, it was renovated in 1989 to be the main stadium for the 1992 Summer Olympics and the 1992 Summer Paralympics.

The Catalunya Ràdio is the public radio network of Catalonia, Spain, and is the major network in Catalan. It has four stations, the most important of which is the Catalunya Ràdio, which is headquartered in Barcelona and broadcasts exclusively in Catalan.

‘Forbes’ further stated that the FC Barcelona President Joan Laporta already has a “lot of people” interested in acquiring the boxes, in what could prove to be a very important cash injection for Barça or an “economic lever” as Laporta likes to call such developments.

The Barça chief coined the phrase in 2022, when the Barça sold percentages of its future television rights revenue and stakes in its media arm – the Barça Studios – to finance the purchases of players such as Robert Lewandowski (Polish professional footballer who plays as a striker for FC Barcelona), Raphinha (Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Barcelona) and Jules Koundé (French professional footballer who plays as a centre-back or right-back for Barcelona).

Barcelona (Spain)-based the Barça Studios is a digital content creation and distribution hub that manages the creation, production and commercialization of FC Barcelona’s audiovisual content.

From a sporting perspective, the coup proved a masterstroke as the Head Coach Xavi Hernández was able to steer Barça to its first LaLiga title in four years. Barcelona is the most recent winners, having won the 2022-2023 editions.

The ‘Blaugrana’ haven’t fared as well on the pitch this term while currently trailing bitter rivals Real Madrid CF at the summit by eight points. They have advanced to the Champions League quarterfinals, though, in a feat which hadn’t been achieved since 2020 thanks to back-to-back failures to advance out of the group in Europe’s elite club competition.

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League is an annual club association football competition organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by the top-division European clubs, deciding the competition winners through a round robin group stage to qualify for a double-legged knockout format and a single leg final.

Nyon (Switzerland)-based the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach football in Europe and the transcontinental countries of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan, as well as the West Asian countries of Armenia and Israel. The UEFA consists of 55 national association members. Since 2022, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the FIFA and UEFA has suspended all Russian national teams and clubs from any FIFA and UEFA competitions.

Fast forward two years down the line after the birth of the “economic levers” and Barça is again in need of cash to balance the books before the close of the financial year on June 30th, navigate the Financial Fair Play limits and make new signings.

Barcelona’s “economic levers” are financial actions that the club has taken to alleviate restrictions caused by its debt situation. These actions involve selling parts of the club, often for less than their actual value, to raise cash immediately. For example, in Summer 2022, the club sold two parts of itself, including a 25 percent stake, to generate revenue. This increase in staff costs, along with other measures, has led to Barcelona’s wage bill reaching €639 million, the highest in world football.

The Financial Fair Play (FFP) rules in LaLiga can best be explained as a virtual salary space that mandates the clubs to register players’ and coaches’ salaries. Depending on the club’s reported budget, they are assigned a certain limit to register the gross salaries and the possible amortization quota of the entire squad in the course of a season. The figure is obtained by subtracting the costs and debt from the club’s income. The regulations can be publicly accessed in the document provided by LaLiga. In case a club goes over the limit, or simply does not follow the rule, the league has the right to impose multiple economic fees, or in the worst-case scenario, relegate the team to a lower division.

By selling the VIP boxes, Barça could receive an advance payment of $108.5 million (€100 million) on July 1^st and then the remaining $65 million (€60 million) on the same date in 2025.

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