Barcelona studying the potential expansion of the club’s training facilities – report

FC Barcelona boasts more teams and more sportsmen and women every day. There are up to six professional sections of the club with a good number of teams in each of them. This is causing the club’s training facilities, Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, to become too small.

As such, Ferran Correas of SPORT reports that the board of directors chaired by Barcelona president Joan Laporta has set itself the objective of upgrading and expanding the training facilities so that it can provide a better service to the club’s sportspersons.

The idea is still in the initial stage, but it is generating debate within the club and the board of directors, who have discussed and studied how to expand a venue that needs to grow, bearing in mind the financial situation of the club.

Multiple avenues being explored

The report states that Barcelona are looking into multiple avenues to proceed with the expansion of the Ciutat Esportiva complex.

One of the ideas is to use the land that Barça own in Viladecans to extend the current Ciutat Esportiva. It would involve the transfer of part of the current activity to the new facility.

It was precisely the board presided over by Laporta in 2008 that acquired the land. They bought an area of almost 28 hectares for €18 million, and earmarked it for the construction of sports facilities.

In order to carry out this expansion of the current Ciutat Esportiva and to avoid additional costs, the board of directors is considering selling the land at Can Rigalt.

The land was purchased in 1997 for €1.5 million, sold by the Laporta board in 2005 for €35.4 million, and bought back by the club under the presidency of Josep Maria Bartomeu by court order for €47 million, the amount of the previous sale plus interest.

The current board, again with Laporta at the helm, revalued the land, raising its value to €33.3 million. And the idea of the board of directors is to sell the land and get rid of it completely.

With the money that comes in, one of their objectives could become a reality, to expand the current Ciutat Esportiva. Everything is, however, under study and discussion.