Barça trailblazing tech Commercial Office

Image: FC Barcelona

The LaLiga team FC Barcelona opened its Commercial Office on May 8^th – an immersive showroom well-equipped with the latest tech offerings which is a kind of a ‘Room With A View’ facilitating inside-out glimpse of the Barça’s under redevelopment home – the Spotify Camp Nou in Barcelona, Spain. The emerging technologies like virtual reality (VR) and hologram will facilitate the fans to take a dekko of the revamp work going on in the top-flight’s home ground from the commercial office. It is a very avant-garde concept and has set a benchmark for the other venues to take a page out of the same.

The premium experiences company Legends has played a key role in setting up the Commercial Office.

‘fcbarcelona.com’ stated that the opening event was attended by the President of FC Barcelona, Joan Laporta, Members of the Board of Directors and Executives from the club and the premium experiences company Legends Managing Director of Iberia (peninsula in Europe) Jesus Bueno.

The Futbol Club Barcelona, commonly known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in LaLiga, the top flight of Spanish football.

The 55,926-capacity Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys is a stadium in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Originally built in 1927 for the 1929 International Exposition in the City, it was renovated in 1989 to be the main stadium for the 1992 Summer Olympics and the 1992 Summer Paralympics. It is the home stadium of FC Barcelona for the 2023-2024 seasons due to the renovation of their regular ground, the Spotify Camp Nou.

The Spotify Camp Nou is the home stadium of the LaLiga club FC Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain. It’s the largest football stadium in Europe, with a capacity of around 100,000 people. The stadium opened in 1957. It’s currently being renovated and will have an increased seating capacity of 105,000 when the transformation work of the facility is over, making it the largest stadium in Spain and Europe.

Founded in 2008, New York (US)-based Legends is a premium experiences company with six divisions operating worldwide – Global Planning, Global Sales, Hospitality, Global Partnerships, Global Merchandise, and Global Technology Solutions – offering the clients and the partners a 360-degree service solution platform to elevate their brand and execute their vision.

The FC Barcelona presented last October the new Barça Hospitality offer for the future Spotify Camp Nou which has been very well-received with 90 percent of the products already launched sold – the 20 VVIP suites, the 96 Boxes and the Loge Seats which have recently been made available in the first VIP tier. For the commercialization of the premium spaces at the stadium, the club opened on May 8^th a new commercial office with 1,000m² of floorspace armed with trailblazing tech.

Apart from the above officials, the opening event was also attended by the Institutional Vice-President of FC Barcelona, Elena Fort, the Vice-President of Marketing of FC Barcelona, Juli Guiu, the Vice- President of the Social Area at FC Barcelona, Antonio Escudero, and several other functionaries.

Two of the main channels to keep well-oiled the financial wheels of the Espai Barça project and to achieve the objective of generating new revenue streams are the sponsorship agreements linked to the future Spotify Camp Nou bearing in mind that the agreement with Spotify (a digital music, podcast and video streaming service based in Sweden) for the title rights tops the list and the sale of high-quality hospitality boxes and VIP seats. As such, it is expected that the new sponsorship agreements and the new VIP seats will generate circa 120 million euros in the form of revenue annually.

The Espai Barça is a project to transform FC Barcelona’s facilities in the Les Corts neighborhood of Barcelona (Spain). The project will combine sport and architecture to create a space for the club members and the visitors to share. It will also improve and expand the club’s infrastructure, including the training facilities, the Barça home – the Spotify Camp Nou Stadium, the Palau Blaugrana, offices, and commercial and leisure facilities.

As of April 11^th, 2024, the Espai Barça project at the Spotify Camp Nou in Barcelona is making progress, with the first metal pillars for the third tier already installed. The club plans to hold the first game at the stadium by the end of 2024 and complete the project in the first four months of 2025. However, the stadium’s capacity is expected to be limited when it first reopens, with the first match possibly having around 50,000 attendees. The third tier won’t be open to the public until the end of 2025.

The Palau Blaugrana is an arena in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, belonging to the FC Barcelona. The 7,585-capacity arena is home to the basketball, handball, roller hockey, and futsal divisions of FC Barcelona. The Palau Blaugrana is located in the same complex that houses the Spotify Camp Nou Stadium.
 

Immersive Technology

Stated Sergi Ricart, Commercial Director, FC Barcelona, “The opening of the Commercial Office as well as forging ties with the best-of-the-breed partners for the transformational venue project, such as Legends, is a significant development and will bring positive outcomes.”

Talking in the same vein, Ricart added that for generating revenue “the club is taking concrete steps especially in context with the sponsorship program for Espai Barça and in the last few weeks we have announced partnerships with companies like TK Elevator (a German elevator company that manufactures, installs, repairs, modernizes, and services elevators and escalators) and EHEIM Möbel (a German furniture company that specializes in fixed seating solutions for the public venues).”

Added Legends top gun Bueno, “The FC Barcelona is pioneering the concept in Europe of using an immersive showroom (read the Commercial Office) to allow fans to take a virtual trip of the under renovation Spotify Camp Nou and catch a glimpse of the new seats and VIP boxes first-hand. The Legends and the club have built a space (the Commercial Office) which comes armed with virtual reality and holograms and it will facilitate the fans to catch a glimpse of the interiors of the under-renovation Spotify Camp Nou and will also allow the fans to experience virtually the excitement of a matchday at the spiffy stadium when it will reopen. Legends are honored to partner with the FC Barcelona to deliver the club’s avant-garde vision of offering a first-class hospitality experience to their fans in the future Spotify Camp Nou.”

Beaming with pride, the FC Barcelona boss Laporta said, “The Legends and the Barça is working in tandem to provide an exalted experience to the fans at the renovated Spotify Camp Nou which will stand out among the spiffy arenas of the world.”
 

Commercial Office

‘fcbarcelona.com’ further stated that the new Commercial Office which opened on May 8^th will be in use until the total transformation work of the Spotify Camp Nou is over.

The fans who want a first-hand view of the new seats and the VIP Boxes in the future Spotify Camp Nou can see the same through the futuristic Commercial Office which is equipped with cutting-edge technology.

Legends with its pioneering work on the Commercial Office have set a benchmark for the other arenas to follow suit.

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