FC Barcelona rents urn spots next to Camp Nou for thousands of euros
FC Barcelona started this week renting storage spaces for urns, just a few metres from the pitch. At the same time the club unveiled the ‘Memorial FC Barcelona’. Anyone who has spent a lifetime in the stands of Camp Nou will soon be able to find their final resting place there as well.
Columbarium and capacity
In the basement of Camp Nou a columbarium is being created, an urn wall with more than 26,000 niches. Fans can have their ashes placed for a period of ten, twenty‑five or fifty years.
A niche for ten years costs €2,490, for twenty‑five years €4,990 and for fifty years €5,990. A reservation in the special area, expected to be ready in 2027, costs €500, but this amount will later be deducted from the price. On top of that there is €180 for the urn and administration and €70 per year for maintenance.
When the contract expires, the ashes can be moved for €1,800 to a communal space; for a fifty‑year contract that transfer is already included. Anyone who does not want the ashes placed but still wants a spot can choose a plaque with name and message, which costs €490, €890 or €990 depending on the duration. This option is also available for people who are not yet deceased, and for a club legend an additional €100 is paid.
Earlier initiatives and other revenue sources
The concept is not new; in 2014 Barcelona opened a temporary memorial space for almost five hundred urns at the Les Corts cemetery as a forerunner of a stadium‑Memorial. In 2023 the club presented a new design, which is now becoming reality. The Memorial is part of a series of initiatives through which the club, which has been struggling with financial problems for years, is trying to raise money off the pitch.
In 2022 Barcelona auctioned a digital artwork (NFT) of Johan Cruyff’s goal from 1973 against Atlético Madrid, which fetched $693,000. When the old Camp Nou was demolished, seats, pieces of grass and goal nets were sold; grass from the final pitch was turned into diamonds, one carat costing €15,000. At the beginning of 2025 a locker‑room auction followed, with the opening bid for Lionel Messi’s locker at $350,000 and even a penalty‑spot included in the catalogue.