September 17 – Barcelona will ask members to approve a further €510 million funding package this weekend, as delays in the Camp Nou redevelopment have left the club paying for a stadium that is still a long way from generating the revenue it had hoped for.
Barça wants 300 million euros in new financing for Espai Barça through private placement notes with a fixed rate for 30 years. Members will also vote on a €210m Media Notes program secured with additional audiovisual rights, although half of this, €105m, was already placed over the summer.
The club says the extra funding for Espai Barça is needed due to delays in the redevelopment rather than another increase in the construction budget of the still unfinished project.
The club is already shouldering the cost of Europe’s most ambitious stadium project, while thousands of seats, hospitality areas and other commercial spaces are not available to recoup those funds.
The original funding for Espai Barça was built on the idea that the completed stadium would largely pay for itself. Barcelona raised €1.45 billion from 20 investors in 2023, with repayments ultimately supported by additional income generated by the rebuilt Camp Nou. At the time, the club expected around €247 million in annual revenue related to the extra stadium.
Since then, the financing structure has grown to €1.478 billion, while Barcelona refinanced €424 million of debt last year to push repayments further into the future.
The figures presented by the club this week place the global financial debt at around 2,680 million euros, including around 1,800 million connected to Espai Barça.
This is the uncomfortable side of what would otherwise be a much healthier income picture.
The club generated a record €1.06 billion in 2025/26, breaking the €1 billion mark for the first time. The ordinary result was close to break-even, although extraordinary games and tax left the club with a net loss of €18 million.
For this season, the budget jumps again to 1.195 million euros, and sports wages are expected to rise from 571 million euros to 636 million euros, around 53% of the expected income.
The long-term figures are even more ambitious. Barcelona are working towards an annual revenue of around €1.45 billion by 2030/31 with the completed Camp Nou doing much of the heavy lifting.
A fully operational stadium is expected to generate around €420 million annually once its entire hospitality, ticketing, catering, sponsorship and other commercial inventory is available.
This approach can also be seen elsewhere on the agenda of Saturday’s General Assembly. Members will vote on deals with UAE developer Ohana and family entertainment operator Babylon Park, both designed to generate more revenue from the Barca brand and the redeveloped stadium.
Contact the writer of this story, Harry Ewing, at (email protected)
