Barça ‘in talks’ to start Camp Nou work

Article posted by Coliseum, January 6^th, 2022

Image: FC Barcelona

The Spanish professional football club FC Barcelona (Spain) is reportedly in talks with four construction companies to carry out extensive revamp work at its residence – Camp Nou – as part of its Espai Barça plan.

The ‘Expansión’ stated that FC Barcelona is in negotiations with FCC, Acciona, Ferrovial, and Sacyr, with the objective of appointing its preferred construction partner by next Spring.

Futbol Club Barcelona, commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça, is a Spanish professional football club based in Barcelona (Spain), which competes in LaLiga, the top flight of Spanish football.

The 99,354-capacity Camp Nou is a football stadium in Barcelona, Spain. It opened in 1957 and has been the home stadium of FC Barcelona since its completion.

The Espai Barça development plan goes well beyond modernization and reconstruction of FC Barcelona’s home venue Camp Nou. In addition to increasing the capacity of the current stadium to 105,000 from circa 99,000 and completely revamping the current structure of Camp Nou, the Espai Barça project entails building a new Palau Blaugrana with a capacity of 15,000, an additional court with a capacity of 2,000, an ice rink, a new social area, a new commercial area, revamped club offices, La Masía (read FC Barcelona’s youth academy), and an additional 5,000 parking spots. This ambitious initiative has been in work for several years and is scheduled to be ready for the 2024-2025 seasons. In April 2014, Espai Barça was approved by the club’s members with a budget of $700 million.

Following its members voting overwhelmingly in favor of a funding proposal for the project recently, Barcelona is looking to press ahead with its Espai Barça dream project.

The ‘Expansión’ further stated that the online referendum saw 87.87 percent of members vote to ratify a decision made by the club’s delegate members in October 2021 to back the Board of Directors’ proposal to negotiate a financing operation of up to €1.5bn (£1.28bn/$1.69bn) for the project.

The top flight hopes to begin work on Camp Nou redecoration and expansion in the Summer of 2022 and finish the project by 2025. The club hopes to complete work on the Palau Blaugrana by 2026.

The referendum held recently ratified the authorization for Barcelona’s Board of Directors to implement “whatever actions it deems necessary or convenient” to procure funding for Espai Barça. The club said that “under no circumstances” will the project cost more than €1.5bn.

Barcelona also confirmed that a finance operation for the project will be negotiated with the American multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs under previously agreed terms which will deliver a return on investment within 25 years. Payments will not be made until work on the Camp Nou is finished and it starts to generate revenue.

In December 2021, FC Barcelona Chief Executive Ferran Reverter said that the club was considering playing matches at the 55,926-capacity Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in Barcelona, Spain, while renovation work is carried out at the Camp Nou, and also confirmed the team is evaluating “various offers” for naming rights to the revamped venue.

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