{"id":457150,"date":"2026-02-06T07:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T07:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/457150\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T07:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T07:26:07","slug":"barcelona-strengthen-financial-footing-as-camp-nou-return-nears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/457150\/","title":{"rendered":"Barcelona strengthen financial footing as Camp Nou return nears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The picture at FC Barcelona is optimistic as the club finds a stronger grip on its finances. Morningstar DBRS recently confirmed the club\u2019s credit rating at BBB with a positive outlook, a nod to the progress Bar\u00e7a has made in cost control, commercial expansion, and matchday revenue.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The commercial side has done very well for the Catalan club, indeed. Bar\u00e7a Licensing &amp; Merchandising (BLM) has helped the club reach new markets, while sponsorship income hit a record 259 million euros last season and merchandising pulled in 170 million, fueled in part by a 55 percent jump in e-commerce sales. Big deals, including the new Nike agreement, have reinforced Barcelona\u2019s ability to generate income.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Matchday money is also creeping back up. The full reopening of the Spotify Camp Nou has been pushed to next month, initially limiting capacity to 62,000. Even so, hospitality packages, season tickets, and general admissions have outperformed expectations. By 2028, the Camp Nou will once again be Europe\u2019s largest stadium, holding 105,000 fans, giving Bar\u00e7a a massive boost in potential revenue. DBRS projects ordinary income to reach 1.075 billion euros in 2025-26 and climb to 1.2 billion by 2027-28.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">On the cost front, the club has cut the payroll &#8211; one of the biggest expenditures. Wages now make up 54 percent of ordinary income, safely within UEFA\u2019s rules, and overall debt has dropped by around 90 million euros compared with last year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization), excluding player transfers, has bounced back into positive territory, 90 million euros last year, and edging toward 100 million in the coming years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">DBRS notes, \u201cThe club has managed to reverse its financial trend, thanks to a more conservative spending approach and expected income improvement with the return to the stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">The positive rating could rise further if the debt-to-EBITDA ratio (a financial metric used to measure a company\u2019s ability to pay off its debt) drops below 4.5 times. Right now, it\u2019s expected to hover around 5.0. But, steady profit growth and planned debt repayments could change that. Despite some risks still existing, of course, the club seems prepared to navigate them without shaking its financial foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The picture at FC Barcelona is optimistic as the club finds a stronger grip on its finances. Morningstar&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[36226,49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-457150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-barcelona-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}