Barcelona received about €1.5 billion in funds to renovate the Spotify Camp Nou, the Spanish giants announced on Monday.
The Blaugrana had set 31st of March as initial deadline to finalize the funding for the project, but the global rise of interest rates caused some delays in the final stage of negotiation.
20 investors were involved to reach the amount needed for the work in the end and will see the club’s 99,000-seater stadium renovated.
Barcelona, who are currently topping the La Liga table, revealed that the “club assets were not used as a guarantee and a mortgage was not taken out on the stadium” amid reports that they would have to make compromises to seal the financing.
The club’s statement on Monday read; “[The money is re-payable] in different instalments to be paid progressively at five, seven, nine, 20 and 24 years, with a flexible structure, including a grace period.”
“The club will start to repay the operation once work has been completed on the stadium, using income generated by Camp Nou,” it concluded.
Barca also confirmed that the investors include; Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, JLL, Perez-Llorca, DLA Piper, Key Capital Partners, Legends and IPG 360.
Renovation has already started at Camp Nou with the upper tier holding around 5,000 fans behind one of the goals removed during the break for the World Cup last year.
Once this current season draws to a close, the renovation will pick up pace and Barcelona will move to the Olympic Stadium which has a 50,000 capacity.
The club will be back at Camp Nou by November 2024, and this will coincide with their club’s 125th anniversary celebration.
Barca’s €1.5bn project is aimed at increasing the capacity of Camp Nou to a 105,000-seater stadium that they say will be “at the avant-garde of technology.”
The first opened the stadium in 1957 and it remained Europe’s largest, but the 65-year-old venue is due for renovation.
The plans to renovate the stadium were approved in 2014 by Barcelona but only a tiny fraction of the proposed work was achieved due to myriad issues.
The stadium have been however modified through the years by the clubs new director.
The new Camp Nou will have a retractable roof which will be covered in 30,000 square metres of solar panels.
The energy that will be generated by the solar panels, will be used to power the new 360-degree screen that will run around the entire interior of the stadium.
The energy generated will also be used to power several security systems.
Also, there will be efforts to improve the stadiums sustainability, as rain water will be collected and recycled as well.
On the outside of the ground, the concourse will have a raft of several office complexes and green spaces, there will also be an on-site hotel, event spaces, an ice rink.
It is set to feature the “Palau Blaugrana” which is traditionally a smaller pavilion arena that is primarily the home of the basketball team.
