December 12 – With Barcelona considering their options on whether to revamp the Nou Camp or move to a new site and build on land owned by the University of Barcelona, the club has landed US IT company Intel as a new sponsor.
The club has been quick to reassure fans that the new sponsorship will not involve naming rights, but the ability of the club to land a blue-chip big money sponsor will not be lost on the sources of finance for the proposed stadia plans.
Both stadium plans proposed involve increasing capacity from 99,000 to 105,000. Neither will come cheap. No figure is put on the Intel deal. The company will become Barcelona’s official technology partner.
While Barcelona’s head of business Javier Faus said the club would be prepared to add sponsors’ names to a new stadium to help finance the project, he said that there would be no full naming rights deal.
On the club’s website he said that the club could generate up to €340 million a year for a naming rights deal (which would be by far the biggest in world football), but the long term nature of the contracts are a dis-incentive.
“The majority of the board does not want to completely sell the naming rights of the stadium. Adding a ‘last name’ is the lesser of two evils. We could generate around €100m, but these contracts have a duration of 25 years,” said Faus.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1750694697labto1750694697ofdlr1750694697owedi1750694697sni@n1750694697osloh1750694697cin.l1750694697uap1750694697