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Gerard Piqué is reportedly willing to help finance renovations to Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium after the club lost 88 million pounds as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The idea of remodeling the site by increasing its capacity to 105,000 was first proposed in 2014 when the club’s budget was 542 million pounds, but the final estimated cost is up to 740 million pounds.
Barça’s finances have been greatly affected during the coronavirus pandemic and Radio Marca reports that defender Piqué has offered to act as an intermediary between the club and other companies willing to finance the project and has also shown interest in subcontracting projects. .
Piqué has a track record in generating business for the Catalans and has played a key role in the current sponsorship with Rakuten.
Goldman Sachs is in charge of financing the project, which the club expects to generate revenues of £ 150 million a year.
Barca’s financial woes have been well documented with their latest figures showing a huge loss of £ 88 million, as well as a net debt that has doubled to more than £ 440 million.
The club’s revenue was down 19 per cent from the previous year, by £ 123 million, as fans have been unable to attend matches due to Covid-19 security measures.
Barça has also been affected by the sharp drop in tourism in the city, which has affected its income from its museum, which usually receives 1.2 million visitors a year, and from merchandising.
Last month, Vice President Jordi Moix insisted that the club must go ahead with its plans to renovate the stadium.
According to Moix, the redevelopment of the land and the surrounding area, known as Espai Barca, has become more urgent due to the pandemic, adding that the project would eventually pay for itself.
“Espai Barca is more necessary than ever due to Covid,” Moix said.
“It is a way to reinvent the economy of the city and the club and generate new income, but we have to invest that investment.”
“We have a stadium where nothing new has been done since 1982, so there is a lot of potential activity and revenue that we don’t have right now in the stadium that will be generated in the new one,” Moix explained.
“So we agreed on a plan where Goldman is entitled to be paid as a guarantee of repayment of that income year after year.”
Work on the stadium is expected to begin in January 2021 and is estimated to take five years to complete.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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