Historically, FC Barcelona has been
a multidisciplinary Club. Basketball, Handball, Volleyball, Rugby,
etc. have been sports
where the name of our Club
has been present. Currently, up to 12 different modalities are practiced in the Club.
Of these, 4 are considered
professionals (Basketball, Handball, Roller-Hockey and Futsal),
while the rest are amateurs.
The questions that many people raise
are: Is it necessary to spend so much money to
maintain (in the case of professional sports) as a loss-making activities for the Club? and,
moreover, should we have so many different
amateur sports in a club that is as
professional as Barça?
I will tell you yes. To both. Let's start by
the amateur sections.
The last to go was an historical as was
baseball. The justification was that the cost of this section was around 400,000€/year
and, since the Club had a "deep economic crisis as a
result of the previous Board" had to eliminate those
expenses which were not necessary. Well, for you may have an
idea, bringing Neymar with family
and friends to the presentation of the player cost (travel, hotels, etc.),
according to what the former President Rosell
said in his statement to the judge, 301,000€. That
is, in a couple of days we spent the same cost that baseball has in a year. No comments.
As the name suggests, they are amateur teams;
ie, the players do
this sport because they like it, and they have no financial compensation
that allows them to live of the sport. As such, these
sports serve to show the name
of Barça everywhere. To compete. Nothing else
than that. So many sponsors
and partners and I
do not know how many things we
have, can't we find one of more local type
that serves to cover part of the costs they have? At the end of the day, how much money (among all these amateur sports)
are we talking about? 5M€/year? For a club with an
overall budget of over 500M€,
this means 1% of the total. To put it differently: What
an average player of the football team earns (gross), is what cost us all sections at
the end of the year. And there would be many simple solutions,
such as involving professional players,
who serve for these sports. I think there is no more getting around the issue.
Let's go to 'professionals' sports. Teams ready to compete at
the highest level in all competitions. Teams that play the "Champions League" for their sport, which
often are in the finals and win. Teams costing us
a lot of money each year and they tell us they are a
bottomless pit. That, however
much you try, you can never be
profitable. Are you Sure? Has
anyone looked well how the NBA works? Has anyone looked at how
they work teams across Europe that
do not have a "mother" football team
who gives the name and much more?
As many clubs from around the world come to see the model of
"La
Masia" to carry it to their clubs and
countries, I think we should
go there to see
what and how. Because if Memphis Grizzlies, with
a capacity in the Fedex Forum of 18,000
spectators has benefits and
this Club is only
dedicated to this, we have to
start thinking how they do there.
They have said us about having global sponsors for all
sections, about sponsorship for each team, this and
that. What I can not understand
is that a club like
Barça have so much trouble
to put a commercial
name on the shirt when, we are told, there are so many sponsors and so many people who want to invest in our Club. Something is not
right. Or we do not know how to sell the brand "Barça" or,
we can not explain what the different
sections represent or whatever. What is certain is that there is something that we do not do well.
Together with the purely sporting
part is the
exploitation of the sports arena. The "Palau Blau Grana". Years ago that is small and outdated.
The Board put in
the same package of reform of the Camp Nou building a new "Palau"
when this was something that had in its election manifesto. If someone tells me reasons why you
must go to referendum something
we already said they wanted to
do... Also, one of the prerequisites for this new construction is that Euroleague Basketball
forces have pavilions
at least 10,000 people
capacity. What capacity will have the new "Palau"? Well, 10,000. That is,
it appears that the Board has no great interest (or do not know how it works), in a
large enclosed sports arena. Beyond
the matches, there are many
activities to do on a Pavilion
of these features. Perhaps no one has explained, but here too there are "VIP
Boxes", restaurants, etc. It is,
like the case of football, to offer
all kinds of services, match-day as
well as the other days. People should
have the need to spend the day at
the club facilities and, if football game is at 8pm, do not have a match
of whatever at 6pm, for the simple reason that people leave
the Palau
to go immediately to Camp Nou. Now, if you have the
game in the Palau at 5pm,
there may be people who go to eat something before
changing scenario. Obviously,
this is linked with the prices at the concessions of restaurants and similar. With current prices and services neither the Camp Nou nor the Palau.
Has anyone stopped to consider the revenue that could we have with another model of pricing and service?
The sections are closely
related to the exploitation of the "Palau".
In fact, there is no, in these sports,
the earnings of football by television
and/or ticketing. One thing to
decide is what we do with Club members and their
relationship with other sports.
Obviously, the first thing that matters
is that the person who will
watch basketball or handball is the "soci"
of the club. But, as we said
before, there is a problem of exploitation. The futsal
team played a few days ago the "Elite
Round" of UEFA
giving access to the "Final Four" of
the sport. It was played at the
"Palau".
What was the assistance of spectators?
Below 2,000. Something does not work. The same with basketball. The "Palau"
is only full 6 or 7 days of the year
when we play 40 home games in a season. Little bit. Very little. We have, in different
sports, some of the world's best
in their specialty, but usually
the "Palau" is half
full (or half empty, as you
prefer). I repeat: something does
not work. You see matches of
other Clubs in their domestic
competitions and halls are full. And, let
alone "Champions" matches. Tickets are sold many days before the game. With so
many experts in Marketing, New
Technology, etc. Are we not able to find ways to
fill a "Palau" that,
at most, has a capacity of 8,000
spectators? How to fill one 10,000 or 15,000?
We have two ways. Or
we accept the current model, and we'll always complain that spending is
unsustainable or, we start to look
seriously what others do, that fill halls and have
benefits
Jordi Pascual
You can follow me on Twitter: @JordiPascualP
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