FC Barcelona continues working so that the Spotify Camp Nou Stadium is “prepared” so that it can “return before the end of the year”, although this does not mean that the return of the matches will automatically occur, for which there is still no “exact date.” back”.
“The club is working to have the stadium ready to return before the end of the year, that is the message and that is the work that dozens and dozens of people in this club do every day,” said Elena Fort, vice president of the Institutional Area and responsible for ‘Espai Barça’, at a press conference.
In any case, he later clarified that the club is working “to have the field ready to return at the end of the year.” “From there, there are many reasons and many circumstances that can modulate the exact return date,” he indicated.
“Therefore, our objective is to have the field completed and the exact date to open will depend on circumstances that we will modulate in the coming months,” added Fort, who confirmed that “the forecast” for the works to be “practically finished” is in ” June 2026″.
“When this Board makes a tough decision to leave, which is not easy, we do have the objective of returning as soon as possible. I want to highlight the courage of the Board and the club when making the decision to leave and taking on all this burden, which has not been easy, but, obviously, we want and need to return home,” he noted.
The vice president knows that they will be able to “make the return of spectators compatible without any problem” with “the pace of the works,” although she does not hide that there will be “some inconveniences.” “And when we can do it and we are prepared, we will return,” he said.
In this sense, Joan Centelles, director of Operations at ‘Espai Barça’, did not venture to give a specific date, but made it clear that the bureaucratic permits “do not have to be a problem in themselves” and that they had already planned to start for season tickets that “the first round” of LaLiga EA Sports and the group stage of the Champions League would be at the Olímpic and “the second round of the League at the Spotify Camp Nou”.
“There are many things to evaluate to set a specific date,” said Centelles, who also assured that they are “negotiating an extension of the contract” with the company that operates the Lluís Companys Stadium “until March 31 for reasons of prudence.” “In any case, we will surely be here (at the Spotify Camp Nou) before March 31, well before, I hope,” he added.
Faced with a new question about a return already at the end of January 2025 as announced last week by the club itself, Elena Fort insisted that they are “working practically every hour of the day to have the stadium ready to be able to play before the end of the year “, but that “the license may not arrive the last week of December but the second week of January because there are Christmas holidays.”
“The work is so that the stadium is prepared for when it can return, it will return, and there we have a margin of a few weeks. And out of prudence, because a thousand things can happen in this life and we know it, there must always be a margin because “If we didn’t have it we would be irresponsible. But we are not talking about March, okay? We are always working with deadlines and with works, and the desire is to have the stadium ready at the end of the year to be able to return,” the directive reiterated.
In addition, Fort referred to the possibility of hosting concerts and possible problems such as those that Real Madrid is suffering with the Santiago Bernabéu. “The forecast itself is not to do concerts, not to do at least more than what we did in the old stadium. I must say that the noise pollution system in this stadium is much improved and the few concerts that can be held will have a much lower impact,” he warned. “The concerts are an opportunity, but they are not the basis of the economic plan,” he later expressed.
Fort explained that the return to the Spotify Camp Nou will be with a provisional capacity of around 62,000 spectators, who will access through a provisional access control system. In addition, the final seats will have been placed and the temporary lighting installed, the first and second tier bathrooms will be operational, there will also be catering, and 200 parking spaces will be available that will be used for club commitments, PMR and other daytime operational needs. of party.