BarcelonaOne week before the final of the Women’s Champions League in Turin. Barça’s growth is one of the great news of recent years, it is beyond doubt. And the decision to open the Camp Nou for the team’s last two European matches was a great success. Not just for the promotion of women’s sports. It has also allowed thousands of Barcelona players who feel expelled from the Camp Nou when the men’s team plays to recover old lost sensations. Or being able to create your first memories in the stadium. The prices when Barça men play, designed more for tourists than for the citizens who live here, are a key factor.
Nothing new, in fact. Nothing has changed since the pandemic. The senseless prices have returned to the businesses in the center of Barcelona that until recently were behind the people of Barcelona. And many of those who complained about the pandemic have once again made their flats available to tourists or foreigners who rent them out at crazy prices to spend a short time there. The Camp Nou is another symptom of a city that, thinking of making money fast, loses sight of the future. The long waiting list to get a season ticket doesn’t help either. There are people who have been waiting for years. Years. And nothing happens.
Nothing happens because many subscribers, as they pay, are clear that their card is a right. And that they can do whatever they want. And they are right, legally speaking. Now, that fits in with the values that Barça is supposed to have is something very different. The way you manage your card says a lot about you. There are many who would rather leave their chair empty than have another fan. The average number of subscribers who only use their card two or three times a year hurts. Nor do they release the card with the Free Seat; they don’t need the coves. That’s the decent thing to do, and it should end there. If I pay, I can do whatever I want. If I pay for a card, I don’t have to wait for a tourist or another Barcelona player to occupy my chair one day, even if I don’t see it. That the club is missing an opportunity to sell a ticket? It’s not my problem. Which will be less encouraged? It’s not my problem. What if I turn my two flats in the Eixample into two flats for tourists, the neighborhood loses its personality and many families have to leave the city? It’s not my problem.
How I dream that one day Barça will do like many German clubs and demand that subscribers go to 90% of the matches. If one day a subscriber who only uses the card two or three times a year loses it for not using it, it would be a small victory for many. For those who usually lose, because we suffer for the rent and the price of tickets.
