Barcelona“We thought there would be slaps and it’s been quite the opposite. Just like in Montjuïc.” The phrase was said by a club worker after learning that there should be no raffle for season tickets at Camp Nou. Or, which is the same thing, that there had been less demand than supply. The club put on sale 45,000 passes for the return to the stadium, planned for the first half of 2025, but the social mass turned its back on the team again. Even if Barça is the leader in the League and promises great joy with a game and renewed dynamics thanks to Hansi Flick, the uncertainty of the return date and the mistrust of playing in a stadium still under construction have weighed more than anything else .
Monday was the deadline for season ticket members who had not bought a pass for Montjuïc to be able to buy seats at the Camp Nou. The 17,000 who did put their trust in Lluís Companys already had it secured. That’s about 28,000 seats available for season ticket holders who took a leave of absence. But the club had known for weeks that they had not all sold out. For this reason, a couple more days of margin were added, opening the stadium to the rest of the social mass, those who do not have a season ticket. Even so, the desired figure was not reached. The entity did not want to confirm the data, although according to the sources consulted by the ARA, 40,000 requests have not been reached.
In addition, the process has had a point of controversy. The club did not warn that there was no preference in the acquisition of seats, beyond prioritizing those who went to Montjuïc. Thus, partners who are usually on the side were left with a nosebleed: No one warned them that they had to run, they arrived later than 10 hours and 10 minutes and were forced to take alternative areas, since the place they had been was always sold out.
Barça will stop paying part of what it had budgeted for
Beyond what it means on a social scale, ceasing to sell all the passes is a blow to the Blaugrana economy, which was confident of collecting around 20 million euros with these season tickets. Some money that is already budgeted in this season’s accounts. For this reason, the organization has already sent a message to the entire social mass that has acquired a pass that in the coming days they will be informed of the payment process, which they can split if they so wish.
But the question remains open. When will he return to the Camp Nou? The official answer is that they are working to achieve this by the end of the year, although everyone knows that this is completely impossible. They recognize it internally from Espai Barça and even the manager of the social area, Antonio Escudero, said in an interview with Catalunya Ràdio that it would not be possible until March. A comment that the club was responsible for denying, claiming that he was speaking without knowledge of the cause. But the truth is that the sources consulted by this newspaper are even more pessimistic and point towards Easter. That is, in April.
This uncertainty in the date is one of the facts that can explain why the social mass has gone backwards. In addition, the club kept the Free Seat inactive and added that, if the account was finally returned later, the proportional part of the card would not be returned. Although official sources maintain this position, from the offices they admit that this measure is clearly unpopular and specify that a way will be sought to compensate for it later. One option is to deduct it from the following season’s season ticket.
The uncertainty of playing at a Camp Nou under construction
Going to play on a field under construction, with temporary access, didn’t help either. At this point, the conflict remains open between the club, which wants to return as soon as possible – because it committed itself to it in front of the social mass, and because of the economic grievance that Montjuïc entails -, and the builders, who are asking for more months of margin According to his point of view, it will not be possible until Easter. And they have recommended that the return be postponed until next season. A position that the directive does not contemplate in any case.
Beyond this uncertainty, the Barcelona board do not hide a certain dissatisfaction with the social mass. They find it incomprehensible that they do not value the fact of playing at home again and that they prefer, for the most part, to watch the games from the sofa rather than in the stands. Of the 81,000 season tickets that the Camp Nou has, only half will be on the field when it is played again in a few months. At the same time, the directive has reopened the debate between those who consider that prices should be raised already and those who defend that they should be maintained, claiming that it would be a completely unpopular measure. For the time being, the promise that Joan Laporta and Elena Fort made to different Barcelona opinion groups is being kept: they told them that there would be no increases either this year or next year. And that the 2026/27 academic year, the first with the Camp Nou already finished, would not be increased either. But it turns out that elections must be held precisely in the summer of 2026. You’ll see later.
