Barcelona’s vocal singing section have released an angry statement, accusing the club of putting money over their loyal support.
The Blaugrana have moved to the Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys at Montjuic this season, as work goes on to renovate Camp Nou. The result has seen a dramatic drop in demand for season tickets, yet the club have looked to reduce the available spaces too.
During that statement, carried by Relevo, the club are accused of putting the occasional tourist ahead of the fans that are there every week.
"Clearly, priority is being given to the foreign people, the occasional tourist and not to the local people that feels the colours."
Barcelona's singing section have released an angry statement that accuses the club of prioritising a few euros over their support. #Barca pic.twitter.com/djiCIqjOrX
— Football España (@footballespana_) August 9, 2023
Ahead of the match, Manager Xavi Hernandez had made an appeal to the fans to come out in numbers as they did last season, but it appears the club are not facilitating that.
“The team will give their all and the objective does not change; it continues to be to win titles, all the titles this season. This is the main objective and we hope to see you at Montjuic. It will not be an easy season, it will be abnormal because we are moving from home and we are coming to Montjuic; we need you more than ever. We need your support, solidarity and sacrifice, it is very important that you make us feel like we are at the Camp Nou.”
According to the fan statement, the club have informed the groups that distribute the singing section tickets that their 591 seats (a drop of more than half what they have at Camp Nou), will be reduced yet further. Without explanation, it appears the club will use it sell more expensive tickets to non-season ticket holders.
Generally, the tickets in the singing section are the cheapest, as they have the best attendance record, so Barcelona can gain the most from selling those tickets to tourists.
Barcelona have already had to reduce the price of their season tickets this season, due to a low uptake, missing their target of 27,000 by just over 10,000.
While Barcelona are also a business, it should be recalled that the product they are trying to sell benefits massively from the presence of local fans and in particular, the singing section. The atmosphere they create is an important part of the experience that they are trying to sell to others, and without it, the idea of going to a game will no doubt become much less attractive – without necessarily considering the loyalty aspect.
In the last few hours, the club has informed us of the intention to once again reduce the capacity of the singing section and to disable the sporadic modality season tickets without any justification, breaching all the agreements previously acquired with those responsible for the 4 groups that make up the singing section.
It is not the first time that the club has breached the agreements previously acquired with these sections, showing total disinterest in our proposals, but due to the seriousness of this last fact, we cannot let this go.
We would like to remind you that unlike the rest of the stadium, the singing section has sold out all the seats available in their area at Lluis Companys (591 seats), 50% fewer than we had at the Camp Nou, as agreed with the club initially, with the firm intention of supporting our team as we have always done, and even more so in a season that is expected to be particularly difficult.
In order to reach the 591 seats assigned to all the groups, we have had to leave out a lot of people, and once all this work has been done, we have been informed (via email with a week to go before the league starts) that we still have to reduce our capacity more, something incomprehensible considering the few season tickets sold in the rest of the stadium.
Clearly, priority is being given to the foreign people, the occasional tourist and not to the local people that feels the colours.
Comunicat de la @GradaAnimacio!!!!
AIXÍ NO @FCBarcelona_cat!!!#ForçaBarça#FCBlive#Supporters#FCB#FCBarcelona#Antimadridistes#JoanGamper pic.twitter.com/BXk0OJqq2d— P.B.FRONT532 (@FRONT532oficial) August 8, 2023
