In their precarious financial conditions, FC Barcelona will need to maximize the output of all of their available sources to generate as much funds as they optimally can.
However, the Catalans are without one of their major sources of revenue for now, the Camp Nou stadium, as it is being renovated and the team is playing its current matches at the Montjuic.
While a drop-off in the number of attendees to Barcelona matches was expected with the closure of the Camp Nou, this decline in the number of spectators is beyond even the ideas of the Catalan club’s officials.
According to Mundo Deportivo, the Board of Directors of the club is worried about this decline, and has set increasing the number of spectators at their matches as one of their targets for 2024.
Even the highly important match between Atletico Madrid and Barcelona attracted only 34,568 attendees to the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, which has a total capacity of 50,000 attendees.
The temporary stadium has seen its house full only on occasion up to now, in the match between Real Madrid and Barcelona, which was attended by 50,112 spectators. The game between Barcelona and Real Betis also drew a similar number of 45,055 spectators.
After that match, there has been a downward trend in the number of individuals visiting the Montjuic. In the last match against Almeria, that number had fallen to 34,471 attendees.
This downward trend is particularly observable when seen in the backdrop of the attendance last season. The 2022-23 season saw the record for a historically high number of attendances broken, as there were 83,396 visitors on average every game, filling the stadium up to 83% of its capacity.
The fact that Barcelona did not have a match scheduled at the Montjuic from December 20th to January 27th will help the club, as these are the times when attendance is historically low.
Now, the Catalans will be working to improve the number of attendees in the coming months, which can prove to be a significant source of funds for their strained coffers.
