Barcelona invested heavily in six players this summer, spending €157m on new players, in order to return the excitement to the fans. President Joan Laporta has been keen to emphasize that success on the field will be the catalyst for a return to financial security.
That plan took a significant blow this season, after Barcelona were dumped out of the Champions League group stages by Inter and Bayern Munich. It means Barcelona will miss out on at least €20m in TV rights that they had assumed would arrive, having budgeted to make the quarter-finals.
One positive has been the attendances at Camp Nou. The average league attendance is up 54.1% for La Liga matches, jumping from 53,982 to 83,194 over the seven home matches so far.
That in itself is worth millions per matchday and should provide a welcome jump from last season. This campaign Barcelona have the highest attendance in European football.
Even if many disagree with Laporta’s plan, or will consider it already a failure for their European exit, this is a sign that some of that idea is working as planned.
