Barcawinner said:
But for the economic situation, doesn't the club have lots of ground property? I thought Barcelona would be one of the richest clubs if it sold all of its ground property that it doesn't use.
Yes, there are several ground properties. One of them are in Sant Joan Despí, where the club has planned to built the Ciutat Esportiva (Sport City) with trainment grounds for the youth system and the first team. I know that there were legal problems with them and I don't know which is their current situation. I read somewhere that the youth system is supposed to go there in September. In any case, the club is not going to use for different purposes the properties of Les Corts, near the stadium, until the situation of Sant Joan Despí gets clear. In that case, the current trainment grounds could be destined to different purposes that could allow Barça to increase the incomes.
Besides, the club also owns some properties in Can Rigalt in L'Hospitalet. I'm not totally sure, but I think that Barça wanted to do a real estate operation there that could give us 24 million €, but if I'm not wrong, the situation of these properites also have legal problems.
The problem is that I don't live in Barcelona right now and I'm talking from what I recall, maybe Roger or any other could help us.
In any case, you're not richer just for selling the ground properties. You just change a kind of property for another one. Actually, selling grounds for cash is not such a great operation. You may have more liquidity, but the club is going to lose a property that usually won't lose its value. If you spend that money in a bad signing, you're indeed poorer. I don't know if you understand what I mean. Let's say an example, if Barça sells the grounds of the Camp Nou, they would get a lot of cash, a lot of money... but you are not richer, you change a stadium for cash and that's all. Imagine that you get 100 millions (for example) and you spend them in bad signings, then the price of these players fall the next summer to 70 millions, you're losing "money".The success or not depends on how you spend this money. One thing is liquidity and another one is richness.
Real Madrid's operation was great for them because the Town Hall of Madrid overpaid the grounds of their Ciudad Deportiva. This is a problem of the citizens of that city. They got a lot of cash at that time and they could avoid bankrupcy. That money allowed them to buy players that brought them a lot of incomes from marketing, TV rights, etc. But now Real Madrid is training in the grounds of the Spanish FA, because they don't have their own trainment fields yet. Actually, they're building another one and this is going to suppose a lot of money for them.
Finally, I would not like to see the sponsor in our shirt, but if there's not another solution, then go on. As I've said, this is going to depend of which are the priorities of the club and its members.
Just one more thing, selling properties is okay, but I don't want the Government of Catalunya or any other public institution overpaying to Barcelona, because there are other priorities, IMO. Personally, I think that Televisió de Catalunya pays too much money to Barcelona for the TV rights, the public money should not go to pay football stars, but for schools, hospitals, security and social justice.
