Climb the Olympic stairs. Enter Montjuïc. A blue carpet and a special bracelet silk-screened with the match and date welcome the VIP clientele. There are two types of bracelet depending on the room and the extra experience you choose. But both have a wide food and drink service that adapts to the gastronomy of the Barcelona rival. Yes, there is a classic that never fails: ham cut by professionals from Singularis, those responsible for VIP catering are specialized in haute cuisine services. The Musée d’Orsay or Le Ciel in Paris, the Tower of London, Edinburgh Castle or the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona are some of the spaces in which the Madrid company established in 1990 provides its services.
Each dish specifies whether the food contains gluten or lactose and, of course, those customers who have some type of unusual intolerance or allergy will have previously communicated it to the workers so that the experience is rounded. For the little ones there is a children’s menu and there is also a drinks bar. In the case of consuming alcohol, the client must do so up to one hour before the game starts. After the meeting, they reopen for an hour, until the experience closes.
The rooms are named after two of the entity’s main sponsors: Estrella Damm and Cupra, located in the first and second tiers respectively. Both were designed and built in six months by the Espai Barça team. It is worth remembering that the entity has made an investment of 20 million euros to adapt the facilities and also pays four million euros annually to rent the facilities to BSM, the municipal company that manages the stadium.
With this budget, which includes the VIP, two hallways were adapted and dressed with circular wood-colored structures, parquet on the floor and lighting. Lots of blue light. It gives it a distinctive and special touch. One of the rooms, the Cupra, even has a balcony with views of the Olympic climb from the Plaza de España. You can admire a magnificent sunset and enjoy gastronomic privileges from an hour and a half before the game and up to 60 minutes after the match.
In both rooms there are high-end merchandising products such as cases with a 1-carat diamond from the Camp Nou grass for 15,000 euros, pendants from the Barça stadium in gold with diamonds for 1,000 euros, or pins and leather bracelets with the stadium or the shield and the aforementioned precious stone for 699 and 499 euros respectively. Limited edition t-shirts sponsored by Spotify with the logo of Rosalía, Karol G or the Rolling Stones are also sold and can reach 1,000 euros.
Some 200 companies such as Mitsubishi Electric, Aramark, Eurofred, Allesanauto and DS Smith have requested the season pass to enjoy this VIP experience. They use these boxes and give them as a loyalty tool for their clients or for their sponsors.
Beyond the companies – some have been following the club for 20 years – there are also about 300 clients with VIP membership. The prices of these annual passes, whether companies or clients, range between 6,500 and 16,000 euros per season depending on the product chosen and the add-ons. The packs can include transfer to Montjuïc from the airport and vice versa, visits to the FC Barcelona Museum as well as invitations to the matches of the professional sections – basketball, futsal, handball, roller hockey – and to the Johan Cruyff Stadium to see the matches of Barça Femenino and the men’s reserve team, Barça Atlètic. The most complete passes even have one of the limited parking spaces that the Barcelona City Council has granted to the club.
Match passes can also be purchased, depending on availability. But those advantages of access to other club activities are lost. In the case of Barça-PSG, undoubtedly the most VIP match of the course, a pass ranged between 900 and 1,700 euros. For this match the club earned more than 7 million euros in ticketing.
But there is still more. In recent months the club launched two extra pre-match experiences. The first, called Starpass, is a pass reserved for a maximum of 40 people who have the privilege of seeing the players arrive at the stadium when the doors have not yet been opened to the general public. The experience includes a visit to the restricted areas such as the locker room tunnel, the mixed zone where the players assess the results of the matches or the press rooms where Xavi Hernández and the rival coach appear.
The other attraction is the Warm Up Experience. The club workers lead the VIP clientele to the grass so they can watch the players warm up from behind the goal defended by Ter Stegen. This season it hasn’t rained much. But on the day of Barça-Valencia, the 40 VIPs who paid for this experience did not lack a black raincoat. Depending on the match, the price of these experiences ranges between 250 and 500 euros.
When football starts, VIP clients with or without extra experience have direct access to the boxes. In total, 2,000 seats have been adapted, practically the same number of high-end seats as there were at the old Camp Nou. The only difference is that in Montjuïc they are all located in the Tribune area. Those seats located in the second tier and that give access to the Cupra room have better visibility. Those in the first stands with access to the Damm room are located right next to the Lluís Companys authorities’ box chaired by the top leader: Joan Laporta along with his board of directors.
By the way, the presidential catering, which is served in the box with its particular VIP intended for guests by the entity, is not from Singularis, but from Xerta, the gastronomic restaurant with a Michelin Star by chef Fran López and which is in Barcelona since 2016. Its gastronomy is defined as an open window to the cuisine of the Terres de l’Ebre.