Barcelona, March 16 (BNA): Barcelona is cooperating with Spotify – and changing the name of its stadium – to ease some of the financial difficulties that have crippled the Spanish club recently.
Barcelona’s stadium will be called Spotify Camp Nou after the club announced a “long-term partnership” with the audio broadcasting company, the Associated Press reports.
The agreement includes sponsorship of the main jersey and ownership rights to the stadium, which will be associated with the name of the sponsor for the first time, starting next July.
The Spotify brand will appear on the front of the men’s and women’s team jerseys for four seasons beginning in 2022-23. The Swedish company will also sponsor the training jerseys for three seasons. The club did not say when the stadium’s title rights would expire.
“Spotify and FC Barcelona will work together to create opportunities for the iconic jersey to become a space that can celebrate artists from around the world,” the club said. “The vision of the partnership is to create a new platform to help artists interact with the global FC Barcelona fan community.”
Barcelona president Joan Laporta said the partnership will help bring the club closer to its fans “through unique experiences that combine two activities such as entertainment and football, allowing us to connect with new fans around the world.”
The deal making Spotify the club’s lead partner was signed by the board of directors but is subject to ratification by delegate members in April.
The club did not disclose the financial details, but Spanish media said that the value of the agreement was between 60 million euros ($65 million) and 70 million euros ($76 million) per season.
Spotify will replace Japanese online retailer Rakuten, which paid 55 million euros ($60 million) for its first four seasons with the club before extending it for another term, for 30 million euros ($32 million). Rakuten’s contract was due to expire at the end of this season.
Spotify’s announcement came a day after La Liga announced that Barcelona would head into the next transfer window with more than 144 million euros ($157 million) above the spending limit.
The Spotify deal will help the club reduce this deficit and significantly improve its purchasing power because the league’s salary cap is largely dependent on revenue, costs and debt.
Negotiations with Spotify have been ongoing for some time, and Ferran Reverter resigned as Barcelona chief executive last month due to disagreements within the club over the new deal, although the club and Reverter said he left for “personal and family reasons”.
Barcelona is slowly restructuring its finances after accumulating huge debts due to the coronavirus pandemic and mismanagement by former officials. The club could not keep Lionel Messi after last season due to his financial struggles.
Barcelona are back in the second tier of European football after nearly two decades of elite competition in the Champions League. Galatasaray will play in Turkey on Thursday in the second leg of the round of 16 of the European League. The teams tied 0-0 in the first leg in Barcelona last week.
Xavi Hernández’s side have played well recently after a difficult start to the season and are back in third place in La Liga after being near the middle of the table early on.
Spotify recently became embroiled in a content controversy for comedian Joe Rogan, who has millions of loyal fans but has angered some people who found his comments offensive.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said last year that an attempt to buy Arsenal was rejected by the Kroenke family, which owns the London-based Premier League club.