Home Sports Diamonds are forever! Barcelona selling unique Camp Nou items

Diamonds are forever! Barcelona selling unique Camp Nou items

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Diamonds are forever! Barcelona selling unique Camp Nou items

While everyone involved in Barcelona’s football operation is fully focused on Saturday’s Clásico against their bitter LaLiga rivals Real Madrid, others are busy finding fresh income streams for the financially stricken club.

Stream LIVE: Barcelona vs. Real Madrid, 10/28, 10:05 a.m. ET, ESPN+

As renovation work on their famous old stadium continues, the Catalan club have cooked up a new way to help increase revenue: by selling off parts of the ground as part of their new “Memorabilia project.”

Barça are looking to raise cash by hawking items that you would expect to see available to buy in this situation — including the 100,000-capacity stadium’s seats and the grass from the playing surface — but they have also come up with some innovative ways to raise even more money by selling items in a collection titled “FULL OF HISTORY. FULL OF FUTURE.”

Using the soil from the pitch, which was last played on in the 3-0 win over Mallorca on May 28, the reigning Spanish champions have produced a range of diamonds. However, they may be out of the price range for the ordinary fan with the most expensive product priced at €15,000 ($15,800.)

In total, 11,799 items featuring “ethical, sustainable diamonds made from the carbon in the soil from the last ever game at the stadium” have been made available.

There are six different diamond-encrusted products, starting with two types of bracelet and two different insignias, which are priced between €499 and €699 ($525-$736.) There are 1,957 of each design available — a nod to the year in which Camp Nou was inaugurated.

In addition, there are also 1,957 gold necklaces (€1,000/$1,005) and 1,957 0.5-carat diamonds (€2,500/$2,630) up for grabs. The pièce de résistance, though, is the 1-carat diamond, of which there are only 57 available at a cost of €15,000 each.

Elsewhere, the stadium’s seats — those that haven’t been damaged beyond repair since renovation work began — are being made available to season ticket-holders first, to ensure supporters get their chance to claim the very chairs they have sat in for Clásicos and big Champions League nights throughout the years. They will later go on sale to club members, and then the general public.

At prices ranging from €99.99-€299.99 ($105.35-$316.08), it might cost a bit to construct your own mini-Camp Nou in the back garden, though.

Elsewhere, patches of grass from the pitch — either in a small model Camp Nou, framed or in glass casing — are on the market.

Even parts of the nets from the goals used in that final game against Mallorca have been cut out and framed for posterity.

All in all, it could be quite the money-spinner for Barça, who are still subject to spending restrictions because they are in breach of their LaLiga-imposed cap for the season.

The Blaugrana left Camp Nou earlier this year, relocating the city’s Olympic Stadium to allow the stadium to be partially knocked down, rebuilt and revamped to bring it in line with modern stadia.

Work is continuing around the clock, with the club hopeful of returning in November 2024, albeit with work still ongoing. The idea is for the stadium to completely finished by 2026 — and, perhaps, for Lionel Messi to return to play a part in its grand opening.