Barcelona aims to become the first football club in the world with €1B ($1.1B) in revenue, "as part of a six-year business plan that will see the Catalan side expand both its Camp Nou stadium and its commercial presence around the world," according to Tobias Buck of the FINANCIAL TIMES. Club President Josep Maria Bartomeu "makes clear the scale of Barcelona's ambition." He said, "There are no other clubs in the world, whether in football or in other sports, that think ahead more than one or two seasons. But here at Barça we do. We want to be the first club to reach €1B in revenues." His desire to increase revenues from €600M ($660M) now to more than €1B by '21 "also reflects the need to counter the growing financial clout of the English Premier League." Following the Premiership’s lucrative £5B ($7.61B) three-year deal, teams such as ManU and Chelsea "earn far more from television rights than even the most successful clubs on the continent." Bartomeu's plan "foresees a string of new projects, including the creation of a fee-generating FC Barcelona University and a push into women's sports." In financial terms, the "most relevant actions will be the expansion of the club's presence abroad" and the €600M overhaul of the Camp Nou stadium. Bartomeu: "Our rival is the Premier League. It is not a specific club, it is the strength of the Premier League itself" (FT, 12/10). FORBES' Bobby McMahon wrote central to Bartomeu’s plan is the Espai Barca project "which essentially focuses on the redevelopment of Camp Nou." A doubling of VIP seating from 3,800, an increase in overall capacity from a little under 100,000 to 105,000, all seats covered by a roof and a new zone of restaurants "are all part of the ambitious project" that will cost no less than $440M and is to be completed by '21. Redeveloping Camp Nou "may well generate additional match day receipt revenue but it might not be nearly as much as Bartomeu expects." After all, Barcelona "cannot sell out the Camp Nou even though the club has never been more successful." Barcelona "may have enjoyed the second highest attendance in Europe last season" with an average crowd of 77,632. But the "present capacity is just under 100,000 so the club failed to sell around 20% of the seats last season" (FORBES, 12/12).
