For anyone who has watched at the Camp, what's the shape of the stadium right now? Without biases, would you recommend building or renovating?
It needs upgrading for sure, but I think its important to look at the bigger picture:
Spain's economy, particularly its construction sector is in crisis. So for construction work, for those that can afford it, this is actually a very good time to build - construction costs are at rock bottom, from labour, design, materials, land purchase, low interest rates. But the key point is for those that can afford it. If you take Barca's board word for it, with record revenues etc, then it would seem a very shrewd moment to invest in infrastructure. This is if you take their word for it however, which I have to say I do not believe the financial position to be as healthy as they claim.
The second choice would be what to invest in, improve Camp Nou, or build new. Again you must refer to the economic situation. Both methods take advantage of cheap construction costs, but building new leaves the club open to significant risk and potential loss. The funding of any new stadium would need to be off set by the sale of the current land of Camp Nou. Obviously with land property prices so low this is not a good time to sell that asset. Furthermore it exposes the club to the risk of that land sale falling through, (highly likely in Spain right now even if you did find a buyer). You only need to go down the coast as far as Valencia to see how disasterous that can be.
The only logical development then is refurbishment of the current ground. Which by the way was already in place with the previous board but abandoned due to petty politicking. But again this is based on the club being as financially strong as it is said to be.
