Barcelona have secured almost €1.5 billion in financing to press ahead with the redevelopment of Spotify Camp Nou, the club announced on Monday.
Barca had set an initial deadline of March 31 to finalise the funding for the project, but a rise in global interest rates led to some delays in the final stages of the negotiations.
In the end, 20 investors are involved to reach the amount needed for the work, which will see the club’s historic 99,000-seater stadium and the surrounding area completely regenerated.
The LaLiga leaders have stressed that “club assets were not used as a guarantee and a mortgage was not taken out on the stadium” following recent reports they would have to make compromises to seal the financing.
“[The money is re-payable] in different instalments to be paid progressively at five, seven, nine, 20 and 24 years, with a flexible structure, including a grace period,” a statement said Monday.
“The club will start to repay the operation once work has been completed on the stadium, using income generated by Camp Nou.”
The Blaugrana also confirmed that Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, JLL, Perez-Llorca, DLA Piper, Key Capital Partners, Legends and IPG 360 were among the investors.
Work has already started on the redevelopment of Camp Nou, with an upper tier holding around 5,000 fans behind one of the goals removed during the break for the World Cup last year.
The revamp will pick up the pace once the current campaign draws to a close, with Barca moving to the Olympic Stadium, which holds just over 50,000, in the Montjuic area of the city next season.
They hope to be back at Camp Nou by November 2024, coinciding with celebrations for the club’s 125th anniversary, although work will be ongoing until 2026.
Barca’s €1.5bn project will see them transform Camp Nou into a 105,000-seater stadium that they say will be “at the avant-garde of technology.”
The stadium first opened in 1957 and remains Europe’s largest, but the 65-year-old venue is in need of a facelift.
The grand plans to renovate the ground were first approved by Barca members back in 2014, but due to myriad issues the club has only been able to carry out a tiny fraction of the proposed work — which has also been modified through the years by the new board of directors.
The new Camp Nou will boast a retractable roof covered in 30,000 square metres of solar panels. This energy will be used to power the new 360-degree screen that will run around the entire interior of the stadium, as well as various security systems. In another effort to improve the ground’s sustainability, rainwater will also be collected and recycled.
Outside, the concourse will feature a raft of new office complexes and green spaces, as well as an on-site hotel, event spaces, an ice rink and the “Palau Blaugrana” — a smaller pavilion arena that is primarily the home of the basketball team.
