Barcelona’s plans for the rebuild of Camp Nou are gathering pace with the news that they’ve secured $1.6 billion (€1.45 billion) in funding, with work set to start as soon as 1 June.
It’s been reported for a while now that Barcelona are set to temporarily move out of Camp Nou while the club undertake a massive redevelopment plan for the stadium, but now the ‘Espai Barca’ project has taken huge step forward with news that the club has secured $1.6 billion (€1.45 billion) The club said in a statement that the money had come from deals with 20 investors who would receive repayment over periods of between five and 24 years. Barcelona said they would start paying back the loans when the work was completed.
"This operation once again confirms the club's credibility regarding the Spotify Camp Nou project, the epicentre for Espai Barca," a club statement said.
"The project is essential when it comes to keeping Barcelona at the forefront of world sport, is one of the foundations for the club's economic recovery and future viability and is a tool to enable continuation of the governance model, whereby the over 146,000 Club members are its owners.
"In the coming days the club will hold a press conference regarding the details of the operation.”
Woo architects has been appointed by construction firm Limak Construction to work on the £790 million redevelopment of Barcelona FC’s Spotify Camp Nou stadium The 20-strong woo architects will work alongside three other companies as part of Limak’s design and delivery team: Spanish company Ghesa, Australian engineer Robert Bird Group and crowd movement specialist Movement Strategies.
With just under 100,000 seats, Camp Nou is already the largest stadium in Europe and the 12th largest in the world, but the project will raise the stadium’s capacity to 105,000, making it the 5th largest. As well as the football stadium the Espai Barca project includes €420m earmarked for the Palau Blaugrana, home of the club's basketball and handball teams, and €20m for the Johan Cruyff stadium where the men's reserve and women's football teams play.
For the interim period following the commencement of construction, Barcelona will move to the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys in the 2023/2024 season, and it’s expected that they will return to Camp Nou on 29 November 2024 to celebrate the club's 125th anniversary. The plan is that most of the work will be completed by then, with construction expected to be fully completed by June 2026. Once completed, annual revenue is expected to be around €247M.
For full details of the Espai Barça project, head to fcbarcelona.com
