By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Looking to start anew with the season budget set at 30 million euros, FC Barcelona hopes to recover from huge losses between the 2022-23 season and the ensuing offseason.
The Catalonia giant suffered financial damages of 56.6 million euros last season, according to Barcelona-based outlet 2Playbook.
Managing complicated situations in the basketball division of the storied club, Barca expected economic harm through the 2022-23 season, approximately 28 million euros. However, the overall amount surpassed initial projections by 88%.
Terminating the contracts of Sarunas Jasikevicius, Nikola Mirotic, and Cory Higgins made a bad situation worse. The overall cost of those decisions amounted to 25.27 million euros but will not count toward the budget for the next season, as noted in the report.
For the 2023-24 season, the projected losses have been set at 13.77 million euros. Lowering the season budget on player salaries to 30 million euros was the first step, publicly shared by team president Joan Laporta. Additional financial adjustments stretching from other expenses to boosting income have been planned to reduce the financial damage and meet the deficit target.
Under the guidance of new head coach Roger Grimau, Barcelona sits at 1-0 in the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague and at 3-1 in Spain’s Liga Endesa, early in the 2023-24 campaign. Besides marking the only loss across the aforementioned continental and domestic competitions, Real Madrid also won the Clasico of the 2023 Supercopa Endesa in mid-September, eliminating its archrival from contention in the Semifinals.
Photo Credit: EuroleagueBasketball.net