Barca lost everything

President Joan Laporta faces a difficult problem when clubs are operating at a loss.

Barcelona is not only a football club, but also a major sports brand with 4 professional sports including basketball, handball, futsal and hockey. Over the decades, the club has achieved remarkable achievements.

However, in the context of the global economic challenges, maintaining competitiveness is becoming a difficult problem for Barcelona. Increasingly limited financial resources force the club to calculate carefully to maintain the quality of competition in all sports.

Despite significant cuts to the sporting budget for the 2023/24 season, the total loss is still €32 million. This loss is a drain on the club’s finances, and directly affects the first team’s wage bill. According to regulations, salaries paid in other sports are also included in the team’s overall salary cap.

Basketball has the highest losses in the entire system. Despite the drastic cuts, the team's expenses still far exceed its revenue. This season, it is expected to earn €21.7 million, while its total expenses will be €40.59 million, including €31.58 million in wages and €8 million in other operating expenses.

The total loss of the basketball team is nearly 19 million euros. In terms of professional skills, the team is also not in good shape, currently ranked 5th in the ACB (Spanish national championship) and 8th in the Euroleague. The club decided not to buy replacement players despite the many injuries in the squad, in order to limit further costs.

The fact that other sports clubs are operating at a loss directly affects the men's football team.

Handball has brought Barcelona the most trophies, especially at continental level. However, they also face increasing financial pressure from other European teams. Revenues were just €2.38 million, while total expenditure was €9.31 million, including €7.35 million in wages. Losses of nearly €7 million.

Barca's futsal team finished second in the LNFS (Spanish national championship) but financially, things are not looking good. Revenue was only 1.76 million euros, while total expenses were 5.63 million euros (4.44 million in wages and 1.19 million in other expenses). Losses were nearly 3.9 million euros.

Hockey is the smallest in the system, but it recorded significant losses. Revenue was just €608,000, while total expenses were €3.09 million (€2.24 million for personnel and €850,000 for other expenses), creating a deficit of nearly €2.7 million.

Apart from the men's team, the women's team was the only profitable division. With a revenue of €19.1 million, personnel costs of €12.68 million and operating costs of €4.44 million, the women's team made a small but positive profit of €217,000, which is expected to continue to grow in the near future.

In the 2022/23 season, Barca set a record of winning all 6 domestic titles in all professional competitions, a historic achievement. However, the big problem at the moment is how to make the clubs operate sustainably, or at least reduce losses, by increasing revenue without depending entirely on the men's football team.

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