Barcelona, in the midst of a war economy, will sell the chairs and the grass of the Camp Nou

romanticism is paid. And more in this war economy Barcelona where each game adds up to achieve the economic objectives that Joan Laporta's board of directors has set. Specifically, that of cutting a minimum of 200 million that Javier Tebas's LaLiga must believe.

This Sunday the members of the Barça club and the fans who have been able to get a ticket will say goodbye, with the League match against Mallorca, to the old Camp Nou, which will begin to be remodeled this summer and which will force the first team to go into exile. Montjuïc until November 2024. Season ticket holders who intend to take a souvenir from the stadium, even if it is their own seat, will have to go through the cash register. The memory is not free.

Thus, and as Barcelona has made official in the face of doubts raised by a social mass that wanted to take over their piece of the stadium, “the seats, the grass and other elements that are part of the current stadium” may be acquired in a process that the club blaugrana has baptized as “circular economy”. The Barça board of directors, at least, offers its members “priority” and “a reduced price” in the purchase of said material compared to other collectors and interested parties.

The now called Spotify Camp Nou, visibly deteriorated despite the actions made by Laporta's board so that the team could at least complete this season without putting its fans at risk (in the last game against Real Sociedad the flies invaded a of the cafeterias, and the toilets presented a deplorable aspect), suffers his long life. In fact, it was inaugurated on September 24, 1957. But above all, he pays for the inaction and the difficulties that the directives were encountering since the time of former president Josep Lluís Núñez to undertake a comprehensive remodeling of the stadium.

The financing of the Espai Barça has finally been approved with 20 investors lending 1,450 million euros, and with the Turkish construction company Limak as responsible for the work – “the only one of the competing companies that has made the commitment to return to the Camp Nou in November 2024 and to conclude the work before June 2026”, according to Laporta-, Barcelona fans only have to say goodbye to their old stadium. Next Monday, in fact, the start of the remodeling of the Camp Nou will take place with the laying of the first stone.

Barcelona plans to lose 55 million euros with its transfer to Montjuïc, despite the fact that in February the club defended that the loss would be 93 million. The Barça club hoped to achieve that objective by charging the member a high cost (25% more expensive) for being able to occupy a seat in the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium, a controversial decision that the club has had to rectify by reducing its expectations of 50% charge to partner. Only 27,385 subscribers will be able to attend Montjuïc, leaving out some 56,000.

“When we go to Montjuïc three or four times, we will discover that football doesn't look so bad,” Barcelona's institutional vice-president, Elena Fort, said on Thursday, insisting that the Barca feasibility plan goes through the “budget readjustment of all areas, sports and non-sports”.

For now, Barça will try to do business with chairs and pieces of grass. The shield, for now, is still in place.