Joan Laporta

already has a good reason to transcend.

The president of Barcelona and his board of directors achieved this Sunday that the club's members with the right to vote, through an unprecedented telematic referendum, massively approved the largest equity investment in the history of the entity.

87.8% of the members who participated (44.14% of the census) agreed with 42,696 votes in favor.

The vote against was 10.4% (5,055), with an abstention of 1.8% (875).

Laporta's team now has a free hand to request a loan of up to 1,500 million euros to carry out Espai Barça (former president

Josep Maria Bartomeu

budgeted it at 600 million in 2014).

A project with which, among other transformation works in the Les Corts neighborhood, the old and shattered Camp Nou (1957) will be remodeled and a new Palau Blaugrana will be built.

The operation will be articulated, of course, by

Goldman Sachs

, the main creditor of a club that accumulates a gross debt of 1,350 million.

Barcelona plans to close the loan (at an interest that will not drop below 3%) before next summer, the scheduled date for the works to begin.

His idea is to pay it back in 35 years, although during the first five he would only pay interest.

Guarantee

Barcelona remains firm in the idea that it will be able to return this money with the resources generated by Espai Barça from 2025. «The project is financed by itself. The works do not cost the members money and the patrimony is not mortgaged ”, they repeat from the club like a mantra. Given the doubts generated by the demands that lenders could impose, Laporta's management team denies that the operation requires more guarantees than Espai Barça's own income.

They also maintain the rectors of Barcelona who, with the new Camp Nou, will be able to generate a minimum of 200 million euros in additional income. A third would go to the repayment of the debt, while the rest would remain for the coffers of the entity. Barcelona is counting on activating something like a virtuous patrimonial circle that allows it to recover lost ground both economically and sportingly thanks to the new VIP boxes and seats, new exploitation spaces and sponsors. Although one of the keys will be the sale for ten years of the

naming rights

of the Camp Nou and the Palau for about 48 million euros per year. This would make it possible to considerably increase the aforementioned 200 million euros of additional income.

According to the calculations made by the Barcelona board, 900 of the 1,500 million in which the Espai Barça project is estimated will be allocated to the new Camp Nou, which should be completed by the end of 2025 and whose remodeling will force the team to play in another location, probably the Montjuïc Olympic Stadium, in the 2023-24 season. The new Palau Blaugrana (completion scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026) will cost 420 million, including a second pavilion, an ice rink and a parking lot for buses. About 100 million will go to the urbanization around Les Corts and the so-called Campus (to be completed in 2027). The remodeling of the General Metropolitan Plan will cost 60 million, while 20 are for the Estadi Johan Cruyff, located in the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper in Sant Joan Despí.

"It is a historic day for Barcelona," congratulated Laporta, who already has the blank check from the partner that he so badly needed.

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