The Barça partner ‘passes’ Montjuïc and Laporta improvises to avoid a stadium too full of tourists

2023-05-19 07:58:17

BarcelonaOn the same day that Barça announced the new price policy for the Montjuïc stadium, the club sent members a survey in which they asked about various current issues. One of them, clearly, the temporary transfer to Lluís Companys. The social area had already detected that there was a lot of discontent due to the inconveniences generated by the exile, but everything became even bigger as soon as the season passes went on sale. While the club expected to sell around 25,000, at the time of the truth it only received 6,000 requests. A problem for the fans and, very importantly, a stone in the shoe for the culer treasury, which has forced the board to reconsider the situation.

Playing in Montjuïc is not negotiable. The management of Joan Laporta was clear from the first day he won the elections, and during these two years he has been mentalizing the social mass. No one likes to leave home, and least of all if they have to go to a field that is difficult to access, where you can’t see the football so well and which, for dessert, has the bad reputation of being so cold in winter that peel The club, which has already had to scratch its pockets and spent more than 20 million to adapt the stadium, had its neck down that many of the season ticket holders – there are more than 80,000 at the Camp Nou – would take a leave of absence, especially those from far away from Barcelona, ​​since it will be more difficult for them to get to the stadium and because many clubs have already announced that they will suspend the bus service due to low demand, as already happened during the pandemic, where a notable percentage of subscribers took advantage of the temporary leave.

Between this and a much lower capacity (49,472 locations, of which 9,369 have reduced visibility), the organization knew perfectly well that the income derived from the sale of tickets would plummet. To compensate part of the losses, two ways were opened. One, significantly raise the price of season passes (between 40 and 50%). And the other, to have around 20,000 tickets per game to sell individually. Elena Fort, vice-president of the social area and spokesperson, calculated that the loss of income would be around 55 million compared to a normal season at the Camp Nou, although sources from the entity maintain to the ARA that the number increased to 100.

La Liga, pending the number of Barça subscribers

Either way, this drop in revenue has a direct impact on the budget for the 2023/24 season. And therefore in the famous fair play financial At the end of April, Barça sent Madrid its particular viability plan for the next two years, a projection of income and expenses that, once it receives the approval of the League, will allow the club to stop being “exceeded ” and can incorporate players with the 1:1 rule (every euro you earn by selling a footballer you can invest by signing another). Employer sources admitted to this newspaper that the proposal was “coherent”, but asked Barça to take a step further and demonstrate that it could really meet the expectations of a plan that, for example, included a drastic cut of 130 million in ordinary expenses. And what does Montjuïc have to do with all this? That if fewer season tickets are sold, the budget is no longer being met and the management can revise down the prognoses for Barcelona.

Between the rush to guarantee income and the popular revolt on the part of the social mass, the leadership of the club met urgently to analyze the situation. The solution, as President Laporta explained on Monday, was a significant reduction in the price of season tickets. In this way, they are confident of retrieving the sale. On the horizon there is also the fear that either the stands will be half empty at Montjuïc – as often happened to Espanyol during the years they played there – or that there will be a higher proportion of tourists than fans locals

Now, although Laporta said that the new pricing policy was “closed”, in reality it has not yet been decided, as several sources at the club have confirmed to this newspaper. The debate is between recovering the usual Camp Nou prices or opting for a more reasonable increase, of between 10 and 20%. The forecast is to have it completed next week and for the board to approve it at the regular meeting on Thursday, May 25. At the moment, the form to purchase the passes is still open on the club’s website with the prices announced a month ago.