BarcelonaThe board of directors of Barça announced this Monday that the construction company that will carry out the comprehensive reform of the Camp Nou will be the Turkish company Limak Construction. The board chaired by Joan Laporta has met to validate the results of a competition that included three other companies: the Spanish Ferrovial and Acciona and FCC and the French Vinci. The verdict comes without the club having signed the loan to begin the bulk of the work, which is also not associated with a definitive building permit from Barcelona City Council. Talks with Goldman Sachs, the main financial provider, have been going on for months. In fact, the American investment bank has had specific weight in the selection of the construction company, which of the stadiums, the best known of which it has built is the Mersin Arena, with a capacity for 25,000 people, in the city that this name Limak’s big specialty is roads and airports.
At 7:00 p.m. this Monday, the spokeswoman for the board of directors, Maria Elena Fort, will provide more details about a historic decision at the institution.
What has been done so far at Espai Barça?
In 2019, the Johan Cruyff stadium was inaugurated in the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper for Barça women’s and Barça Atlètic to play there. A year later, the demolition of the Miniestadi was completed, which led to the controversial payment of 1.5 million to Laietà for possible inconvenience during the operation. On the other hand, work has been carried out inside the Camp Nou to start adapting the facilities in terms of technology and external development. As for the Camp Nou, only the demolition of the central part of the third stand of the south goal of the Camp Nou was carried out, during the stoppage of the World Cup, which led to the previous removal of the video marker and the seats in the area. These works have had a maximum cost of 4.6 million and have mainly affected 3,728 locations in the third tier, of which 3,182 correspond to members who have been relocated or have been offered a temporary moratorium on the payment of the subscription
Who will direct the works of the new Camp Nou?
The UTE (Temporary Union of Companies) is formed by JG Ingenieros and Torrella Ingeniería, companies from Barcelona and Terrassa, respectively. The choice brought controversy because the College of Architects of Catalonia did not see clearly the formation of this tandem, especially because of Torrella’s inexperience in sports venues. This joint venture led to the departure of the project of the b720 firms Fermín Vázquez and Nikken-Sekkei, which in 2016 won the competition for design and execution. In addition, as reported by the ARA, this summer also left the IDOM project, the company that had been in charge of reformulating the remodeling of the Camp Nou since the arrival of Joan Laporta in the presidency in March 2021. Barcelona City Council has yet to approve this redevelopment.
What is the cost of the Camp Nou reform?
Barça has been able to carry out the works on Espai Barça thanks to the two bridging loans that Goldman Sachs has granted it. The first, in Bartomeu’s time, and the second, in Laporta’s. They add up to a total of 180 million. But this amount will be insufficient to face the bulk of the Camp Nou remodeling works, which will begin next summer, once the current campaign ends. Thus, Barça is negotiating a new loan that it expects to close before the end of the year. The figure for this third operation, in principle, would not reach the 900 million euros that the board of Laporta calculates as the total cost of the remodeling of the Camp Nou. In total, the Catalan government rates the entire Espai Barça, including Cruyff and the new Palau, at 1,500 kilosof which he estimates that nearly 250 have already been spent.
What is the Camp Nou construction schedule?
The forecast is for the Olympic Stadium to be played throughout the 2023-2024 academic year and probably also some games in the 2024-2025 season. The investment that the Barcelona club will have to make in the improvements to the venue will mean a cost of around 20 million euros. And the loss of income associated with exile will exceed 150 million next campaign. That’s why Laporta and his team want it to last as long as possible, even if during the 24-25 and 25-26 seasons the stadium is still half-finished. The idea of the executive president is to inaugurate the new site in the spring of 2026.
