Naming rights for Barcelona's renovated Camp Nou stadium complex are "on the market" with an asking price of around $30M per year, "which would be a record for a stadium," according to Terry Lefton of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Barça's $650M renovation of the 60-year-old facility, expected to be completed by '22 or '23, "at the latest," will add 6,000 seats to what is already Europe's largest football stadium, giving it a capacity of "more than 105,000." Other scheduled stadium improvements include a partial roof and premium seating. The campus upgrade also will include a new version of the Palau Blaugrana arena, designed by architecture firm HOK, along with additional planned commercial development including a hotel, skating rink, restaurants, bars, office space and new team offices. The naming rights buyer "gets the corporate nameplate on everything." Barça, seeking a minimum 20-year deal, is being assisted by Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment on the sale. The previous high in Europe was Emirates' 15-year, $180M deal struck in '04 that included naming rights to the new home of Arsenal and a jersey sponsorship for the team -- also engineered by Van Wagner's Jeff Knapple. One measure of global appeal of top European football teams: Barcelona has 52.1 million Instagram followers, while club forward Lionel Messi has 79.9 million. The NFL Dallas Cowboys have 2.4 million followers (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 9/18 issue).
