Barcelona seems to have reserved today as a day of ridiculous claims and wishes, on one end, Barcelona president Joan Laporta commented that he wished that Messi would have played for free, and now a report has come out the club still has plans to go ahead with the Nou Camp renovations.
According to The Sun, Barcelona would still, despite their pretty dire financial situation, like to renovate and revamp their iconic stadium the Nou Camp. The plan calls for the stadium to undergo renovations in 2022 and said renovations would force the club to play away from their ground for 1 season and could last up to 4 years in renovation work.
The idea is for the stadium to add 11,000 seats, for a total capacity of 110,000, and include a club store and renovate the club's museum. In order to begin work on the new stadium the club would need to take out a substantial bank loan, find out how much it would cost Barcelona to renovate and revamp the Nou Camp.
Barcelona needs over $1 billion in a loan to renovate the Nou Camp
The over $1 billion loan, the near equivalent of their red ink, would need to be approved by the Barcelona board and Barcelona club members. The bank willing to loan the funds to Barcelona is Goldman Sachs. Joan Laporta mentioned in his RAC1 interview that “'(The new Camp Nou) is fundamental for the viability of the club and its immediate future… The impact it will have for Barca is critical so that we can compete with our competitors who have already done what is needed.”
While Barcelona will consider playing their matches at the Olympic Stadium or the Johan Cruyff Stadium, the reality of where the club is financially has yet to sink into some at Barcelona. It is not uncommon for nearly bankrupt sports teams to take out loans to continue operations, while this loan will need to be extremely convincing for club members to sign off on it.
Barcelona’s debt is the subject of much of the club’s soccer ills, losing Lionel Messi and the jettison of various players due to not being able to keep their high contracts. Not much is known about Barcelona’s future finances now that Messi is gone, and the team has lost much of its global appeal following the Argentine star’s departure.
