BARCELONA (SPAIN) – Barca financial director Jordi Moix said the completion date for renovations to its Camp Nou stadium has been further delayed to 2025 because of the pandemic.
Members had approved plans to increase the ground’s capacity from 99,000 to 105,000 and install a roof in 2014 and work was set to begin in 2017 and end in 2021 at a cost of 600 million euros (455.86 million pounds).
But Moix said the instability created by the push for independence in the region caused the delay, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
“If we approve the financing for this season and start building work next summer at full speed we are talking about four years of works and we are talking about inaugurating the stadium in 2025,” Moix told a local daily on Thursday.
“If everything goes to plan I see it happening by that date. It’s been heavily delayed, of course. I wish we could have started two or three years ago.
“There are two elements we couldn’t control, a change in the local government and then trying to agree everything in a politically exceptional time. And then you add the coronavirus to all that, which has delayed almost everything.”
He said the club lost around 20% of revenue because of coronavirus, which wiped out matchday income and commercial revenue.
However, the club will still go ahead with the renovation of the old stadium to keep pace with other European clubs who are revamping their grounds, said Moix.
“It is more necessary than ever. We have to revitalise the stadium whatever it takes. Our rivals in Europe are doing it or have already done it,” Moix said.
“We have to do it because the potential for income is much higher with a reformed stadium, with greater income from boxes or the naming rights. It’s an essential project.”
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field