Barça to pay "between €15m and €20m" to play in Montjuic for a year

Barcelona"Between €15m and €20m". This will be the cost for Barça of playing in Montjuic for the 2023/24 season. This Tuesday, the club's president, Joan Laporta, and Barcelona deputy mayor Jaume Collboni have presented an agreement for Barça to move "temporarily" to the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys while it carries out the remodelling work on Camp Nou.

The final cost will be a maximum of €20m, as advanced by ARA. The money will be used basically to modernise the facilities and adapt them to La Liga and Champions League regulations. The changing rooms, toilets and press room will have to be modernised, access improved and an internal car park built, among other issues.

With the slogan "Hello, Barça!" the City Council welcomes the club. For the City Council it will be a great deal, since Barça will pay the total investment in the stadium and will also pay 64% of the investments the City Council had planned in Montjuic. "The City Council will only have to accelerate investments it had already had planned," Collboni explained. These reforms, which cost €7.2m in total and went beyond improving the stadium, had been left for a later date, but will now be carried out imminently. Barça will contribute €4.6m.

Thus, Barça will play temporarily in Montjuic, in a stadium that was Espanyol's home for twelve seasons, until 2009, when they moved to RCDE Stadium in Cornellà-El Prat. "We have ruled out coming next season and as the execution plan for the works stand, it is not foreseen we will stay another year. The idea is to return [to Camp Nou] for the 24/25 season, where they will be waiting for us," said Laporta. In any case, and as club sources admit, it cannot be ruled out that Barça will have to extend their stay in Montjuic depending on the pace at which work on the Camp Nou progresses: this summer some minor work will be done and the cranes will be set up in the summer of 2023, if there is no further postponement.

While Barça is in Montjuic, it will not be possible to accommodate all club members (about 84,000) that the club has. Laporta has explained that a rotating system will be established "in a democratic way" among members. "We want everyone to have a turn. We will try to ensure that as many Barcelonistas as possible can have access to the stadium," said the president. To facilitate attendance, there will be a mobility plan "that will consist of reinforcing the funicular service, with shuttle buses from Plaça Espanya, L9 or Sants station, and boosting access for members with the supporters' clubs' buses," said the president.

Laporta assures that the "economic levers" will be activated in "the next few days"

Beyond the move to Montjuic, Laporta has launched an optimistic message regarding the economic future of the club, which is still awaiting the final economic data for this season and, above all, to be able to sign top players. These are the famous "levers" the assembly authorised last Thursday. "We are working to execute the one that refers to the television rights and soon you will have news. We have been working intensely these days and it will soon be finished. Then, with more tranquility, in July, we will address the other operation. In principle, we believe that there will be two or three operations to obtain positive equity, to be able to repay the debt in a more reasonable and sustainable way and to make the necessary investments to make the teams more competitive".