Barça has sent some of its members a survey in recent days in which they are questioned about the entity’s ownership model. However, in the presentation of the important financing agreement for Espai Barça, both the president of the entity and the economic vice president insisted that the construction of the new facilities will not influence the fact that the club continues in the hands of its members.
“We will continue to maintain the governance model more than ever where the partners who are the owners can enjoy this model. We will maintain this governance model,” Laporta stated. “The Espai Barça is a guarantee and a shield for the club’s governance model”, endorsed Romeu, who justified the survey. “It is a question from a 100-point survey. Asking a question to a social mass does not hurt. But there is no gap within the club in this regard. I also receive the survey as a member but my box is already clearly filled. It’s in our DNA. We didn’t contemplate any other possibility.” The club asks its members if they prefer to keep the property as before, they opt for a public limited company or if they would opt for a mixed formula, with 51% of the shares for the members.
The club will obtain financing of 1,450 million euros for the Espai Barça from around twenty investors, especially from the United States, in an operation led by the banks Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. The operation is structured by maturities in three large tranches. The first, for five years, for an amount of 583 million. The second, with a maturity between seven and nine years, for another 477. And finally, the third, for a period of between 20 and 24 years for 390. In the first two, the club can propose a review of the conditions. According to the entity, the average interest rate of all the credit, discounting the returns obtained for the investment made while the money is not spent, will be 5.53%. “The financing structure is flexible and can be improved. One day the war in Ukraine will end and the markets will relax and that can improve our conditions. We are prepared for when the market gives us a window of opportunity. We have gone to resolve the problem Barça’s problem”, affirmed the economic vice president, Eduard Romeu.
The credit will not begin to be repaid until the new Camp Nou is fully built, in the year 2026. The club will have to pay an average of 94 million euros per year from the start of servicing the debt. To ensure this payment, the club must obtain at least some additional income as a result of the use of the new stadium of about 100 million and from 2028 of 137.5 million. If this minimum is not reached, the manager of the company issuing the debt to finance the project would keep all the income to manage the repayment of the debt. The club estimates that once the new stadium is fully operational, it will obtain an additional 247 million euros per year, a figure that its managers consider conservative.
In this sense, Eduard Romeu wanted to emphasize that this extra income does not include any item from subscriptions. “The club has not asked for any income or money from the members. In our forecasts there is not a single euro of extraordinary income from the season tickets. The season tickets are totally out of date with respect to our competitors.
In our forecasts we have not included a single euro to plan the income of the new facilities”, the economic vice president extended.
The situation that has arisen with the move to Montjuïc is different, since the club announced on Tuesday an increase in the price of season tickets during the move to LluÃs Companys. “We are talking about a totally different environment, an environment that is half of our subscribers, we have to look for solutions, we have to look for market references so as not to lose a series of income that the club needs.” Romeu did not rule out, however, a change of scenery in the face of the criticism that has been generated. “We are studying alternatives to this analysis that we make of the transfer to Montjuïc. We are working with different options but it is a much smaller facility than ours and we have to obtain a series of income”.
As soon as it begins to receive the money, the club will repay 160 million bridge loans already received from Goldman Sachs and which have been allocated to the first works already undertaken, such as the demolition of one of the galleries of the Stadium. Of the 1,450 million, 1,071 are for the work, 179 for financial costs and 200 million for contingencies.
“This financing operation is a test of faith in Barça, it means that the institution is stronger and more alive than ever. We have a great reputation in the national and international markets. Barça has come out stronger. It is a test of confidence that the financial markets make us”, the president of Barcelona, ​​Joan Laporta, puffed out his chest. “We have valued the Barça brand,” argued Romeu.
Laporta was proud of fulfilling a series of premises and recalled them. “One, the works will never entail costs for the members. Two, the project will never put the club’s sports management at risk. And three, the club’s assets are not exposed as a guarantee,” said Laporta.
With this financing agreement, the club ensures that the actual remodeling works of the Camp Nou begin this June, as planned. The financing agreement also includes the construction of the new Palau Blaugrana. “The issue of the Palau was more delayed and we are studying different proposals, it is in a much more incipient situation,” admitted Romeu.
