Barcelona plan to push ahead with their plans to extend the Camp Nou from 99,000 seats to a capacity of 105,000 their vice-president has confirmed.
Jordi Moix told an interview with Reuters that the €815m should be pushed ahead with, despite the club’s financial difficulties, as it would pay for itself and eventually become hugely profitable for the club.
The club have confirmed a financial partnership with Goldman Sachs but will need their members to vote on their proposals at the AGM before they push ahead with the extension.
If the move is given the green light by the membership, work can begin on the expansion and modernisation from June 2021 and it is estimated that the project would take five years to complete.
“Espai Barca is needed more than ever because of COVID,” Moix told Reuters.
“It’s a way to re-engine the economy of the city and the club and generate new revenues, but we have to put that investment in.
“We have a stadium where nothing new has been done since 1982, so there is a bunch of activities and potential revenues that we don’t have now in the stadium that will be generated in the new one.
“So we agreed a scheme where Goldman has the right to be paid as a guarantee for the repayment on those revenues year-by-year.”
Increased ticket sales and matchday revenue, coupled with increasing the number of corporate boxes from 30 to 100, alongside increased sponsorship opportunities, could bring in up to an extra €150m per year for the club.
