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The Camp Nou has a capacity of nearly 99,000 so for most matches, so getting FC Barcelona tickets at a reasonable price is not so difficult.

As long as you're prepared to put in a little time and energy, there's no reason why you shouldn't pay the same as the locals.

The public can buy Barcelona tickets from the official FC Barcelona website a month before a home game or fifteen days before the match from the ground. Tourist Information offices in Barcelona, FNAC and Carrefour shops throughout Spain act as ticket sales outlets. Furthermore, the Barcelona bank - La Caixa - sells tickets on-line through its website and you can pick your tickets up in most Spanish cities from a ServiCaixa ATM with the credit card you used to book.

In this article, I'll provide you with all the information you need to get hold of Barça tickets without having to pay through the nose . . .

These recommendations are appropriate for the majority of Liga and cup matches, but if you want to go to a particularly important game . . .

Click Here To Buy Your FC Barcelona Tickets from my recommended on-line ticket agency.

FC Barcelona Ticket Prices And Availability

The price and availability of tickets varies depending on the category of the match (D, C, B, A or A+) and where you want to sit.

The majority of matches fall into the categories D, C and B and during the 2008-09 season prices ranged from as low as 14€ for a category D match sitting in the highest tier of the stadium to 110€ for a category B match sitting in the Grandstand.

Sitting in the Grandstand is too expensive for me and sitting in the Third Tier is like watching a game of football played by ants, so I generally sit in the First or Second Tier of the Lateral and have never had any problems getting tickets either from the website – where you print them off yourself - or from the ServiCaixa ATMs, and expect to pay anything from 50€ to 90€ depending on the game.

Category A matches, include the Barcelona-Espanyol derby and the last three matches of the season and as tickets are much more difficult to get hold of, it's a good idea to book them as soon as they go on sale. I permit myself the luxury of one of these games a season as I expect to pay about 100€.

For Category A+ games – Barcelona-Real Madrid and the later stages of the Champions League – I resign myself to going down to my local bar and watching the match on their big screen with my mates. If you can get a ticket, prices start at about 80€ and go up to 180€ - I'd expect to pay about 150€ to sit where I like.

It's only for these games that it's worth booking on-line through on-line ticket agency

DO NOT BUY FROM TICKET TOUTS – if your ticket turns out to be a forgery, it serves you right.

The Advantages Of FC Barcelona Membership

There are two ways of showing your love for Barça and guaranteeing your seat. You can either become a season-ticket holder or become a member (soci) of the club. If you want a season ticket, you'd better think about re-mortgaging the house but for about 120€ a season, it's probably worth becoming a member especially if you plan to go to a lot of games.

You get a 20% discount on tickets and priority over the general public. This means that you can book two tickets per game at the beginning of the season, and as soon as tickets goon sale to the general public – 15 days before the match – you can buy as many as six.

Also the club has a system called Seient Lliure – Free Seat – where season-ticket holders can put their seat up for sale through La Caixa.

If your a member and prepared to take the risk, you might be able to get hold of a reasonably priced ticket for a Category A+ match.

Ticket Sales Points

Internet: via the club website

Telephone: 902 1899 00 o +34 93 496 36 00 (from outside Spain)

Servicaixa: website and Servicaixa ATMs (only in Spain)

FNAC and Carrefour stores in Spain

FC Barcelona General Ticket Office (access 14):
Monday to Thursday, from 9.00 to 13.30 and 15.30 to 18.00 Friday, from 9.00 to 14.30 Saturday from 9.00 to 13.30 on weekends of matches played at the Camp Nou

FC Barcelona Boulevard Ticket Office (access 7/9):
Monday to Thursday from 10.00 to 18.00 Sundays from 10.00 to 14.15

FC Barcelona Gol Nord and Gol Sud Ticket Offices:
on Match days: from 11.00 until kick off booths Gol Nord (North Goal) and Gol Sud (South Goal). Or on-line from WorldTicketShop

SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily presented 2009 Sports Business Awards on Thursday, May 28th at the New York Marriott Marquis in Manhattan. The awards were presented to recognize excellence and outstanding achievement in the sports industry for 2008.

The second annual Sports Business Awards were presented in 16 categories out of 67 nominees that include:

Athletic Director of the Year – Joe Castiglione, University of Oklahoma

Best in Corporate Consulting, Marketing and Client Services – IMG

Best in Digital Sports Media – ESPN Digital Media

Best in Property Consulting, Sales and Client Services – IMG

Best in Sports Media – ESPN

Best in Sports Technology – MLB Advanced Media for MLB At Bat

Best in Sports Television – NBC Sports

Best in Talent Representation and Management – CAA Sports

Lifetime Achievement – Peter Ueberroth

Professional Sports League of the Year – National Basketball Association

Professional Sports Team of the Year – Boston Celtics

Sports Event Marketing Firm of the Year – GMR Marketing

Sports Event of the Year – Amp Energy NHL Winter Classic

Sports Executive of the Year – Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics

Sports Facility of the Year – Lucas Oil Stadium and

Sports Sponsor of the Year – Coca-Cola

Richard Weiss, publisher of the SportsBusiness Journal said “With the success of the inaugural Sports Business Awards last year, we decided to expand our program and recognize even more excellence in sports business, the winners and nominees being honored tonight represent those at the forefront of the sports industry.”

Posted on June 1st, 2009 by Emmett Jones in Series

Technology has come a long way since the advent of sports. When basketball was invented, you had zero chance of being able to watch it on television. When the first Super Bowl aired on television, you had zero chance of watching a video clip on your phone, or the internet. The HD came along and gave you every sport in details that you didn’t even know you wanted or existed. Technology today allows you to watch your home TV from your phone or computer hundreds of miles away, or catch all the latest highlights while flying in an airplane.

Thanks to technology, sport can be found any and everywhere.

And that certainly isn’t a bad thing, because today’s fan is obsessed with their sports; and sitting in front of the television all day isn’t always a viable option. Technology has to be not only keep up with the demands of sports fans but show sports fans different things the fan never imagined in the first place. An example of one of the more, cutting edge pieces of technology is the Nintendo-Mariners partnership in Seattle,

Nintendo announced Tuesday that Mariners fans can use their DS game players to access the stadium’s wireless Nintendo Fan Network free of charge. The network allows DS owners to track player stats, watch stadium video and access other Major League Baseball information.

The Nintendo Fan Network, exclusive to Safeco, allows DS owners to experience interactive content that can enhance their ballpark experience, said Mariners spokeswoman Rebecca Hale.

Pretty impressive use of a Wi-Fi network, no? My only complaint, when I wrote this article last April, was the requirement that you already needed to have a Nintendo DS in order to access information that was easily ascertainable elsewhere. But still, it was interesting to see how people were beginning to utilize technology to enahnce the fan experience. The Dolphins will continue to create an enhanced experience for fans at LandShark stadium,

Franchise owner Steven Ross continued his quest for global lady ogling domination selling tickets today, announcing the arrival of 5,000 handheld wireless devices designed to give fans an unprecedented in-game multimedia experience. The Kangaroo Gen III, a slimmer version of the portable TVs introduced to the NFL a few years ago, has a 4.3-inch high-definition screen that will provide instant replays, field level audio, fantasy team alerts, feeds of other games, and the ability to order food and drinks from the concession stands.

Users of the device…will have 11 customizable camera angles at their disposal, including… a cheerleader cam.

Another good idea. Decently sized screen, high definition capabilities, instant replays, order drinks from concession stands, etc. The only problem? The price point. The Kangaroo is only available to those with the money to purchase a suite at LandShark stadium, which alienates a large portion of the stadium’s fanbase, and fans in general. So…teams are obviously utilizing technology but it doesn’t seem like anyone has put it all together yet. What does the future of sports technology look like?

THE FUTURE OF SPORTS TECHNOLOGY

Interestingly enough, the future of sports technology already exists. And its already being used by the Pittsburgh Penguins. The product is the Yinzcam (Yinzcam.com). From the Yinzcam site,

YinzCam is a free experiential mobile video technology for sporting events. Using YinzCam right from their seats, fans can select/view live video feeds from unique camera angles, catch (and create their own) instant replays from multiple angles, access game-time information, player bios and personalized content, on their cellphones.

To access Yinzcam, all you need is a phone that can access a Wi-Fi network. The product has the ability to show fans different camera angles, essentially works like TiVo (less than 2 seconds after live-play), and allows the ability to access all the player content you can handle. I believe we may have stumbled upon the perfect use of technology for the next-generation fan. When I spoke with Yinzcam creator, Priya Narasimhan, an associate professor in Carnegie Mellon’s Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, she said that the average fan was exactly who she had in mind when creating the device,

I created this project because I love sports, and was looking to make the experience more enjoyable for the fans; give them something to enhance their experience.

Although, originally the product was specifically created to allow fans in the nosebleed seats a better experience, it has since expanded,

Imagining paying all this money to go to Yankee stadium, only to find out that you can’t see home plate from your seat? This product helps change that.

Again, you just need a Wi-Fi enabled phone, and you’re able to view the game as if you work in the production booth. Different angles, TiVo capabilities, it is the next generation of technology for the fan. And in the future? Imagine being able to view different camera angles inside the arena while being at your home. Priya says it’s possible,

The issue would be the laws regarding broadcasting. Right now, we only allow live content within the arena so as to comply with broadcasting laws. But if, in the future, a broadcasting deal was worked out and the project was picked up by a network (Someone from ESPN please read this…now. -Ed.) Then yinzcam could be viewed in other places outside the arena.

Think of the uses? Imagine being a fan watching a football game and checking the different replay angles to see if your favorite player scored a TD, even before the referee finished his review? Or just following your favorite player the whole game, regardless of the other action? Or looking at the various action on the sidelines? Then imagine doing all of that from your house while the game is going on…Isn’t it possible to see some sort of globalization of sports working under a model such as this? Which would enable targeted advertising, product sponsorships, etc.

Thanks to technology, sport can be found any and everywhere. Thanks to the future technology? sport can be found anywhere, any way you like it.

P.S. For those interested in learning more about Yinzcam, visit the site @ Yinzcam.com or on twitter www.twitter.com/yinzcam

The English Premier League has proposed "substantial" changes to the British government over the way it regulates the finances of its clubs.

League executives met Tuesday with Andy Burnham, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, to discuss their responses to seven questions he posed to football authorities last year about the financial sustainability and governance of the English game.

"They are taking it very seriously and coming forward with some very substantial proposals for change," Burnham said Wednesday on the sidelines of a conference looking at sport in the recession.

Burnham's principal concerns are about whether the levels of debt in English football are sustainable in the long term and whether takeovers that burden clubs with debt are healthy for the game.

New Orleans could get back in the Super Bowl rotation this week.

NFL owners will award the 2013 Super Bowl to either New Orleans, Glendale, Ariz., or South Florida -- where their spring meetings will take place in Fort Lauderdale.

And while nothing as definitive as selecting a Super Bowl site is expected, the owners could vote on a proposal to expand the regular season to 17 or 18 games, with a reduction in the preseason that would keep the overall total, minus playoffs, at 20 matches.

The Super Bowl has been staged in New Orleans nine times, tied with Miami for the most years hosting the big game. Miami will break that tie in February.

But bringing the Super Bowl back to the bayou for the first time since 2002 not only would be a boon to the Louisiana city, but would display the NFL's satisfaction with how New Orleans has recovered as a sports city from Hurricane Katrina.

"We know that it's not a given that it's going to be awarded to New Orleans and we really want to make the impression on them that we have a strong desire to host this again for a perfect 10th time," said Jay Cicero, the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation's president.

A few weeks ago, the state and the Saints announced a lease extension through 2025 that, if approved by the state Legislature, will also include $85 million in upgrades to the Superdome in time for the 2013 game.

"In a lot of ways, we're providing a new stadium with the advantages of the old stadium," Saints vice president Ben Hales said.

Still, the competition will be stiff. The league has shown its willingness to return to South Florida by holding the 2006 and 2010 games there; no other area has had such frequent hosting duties since Miami in 1995 and 1999. The Phoenix area was praised for its work for the 2008 game in which the New York Giants spoiled New England's perfect season.

A perfect season could require one or two more wins sometime in the near future if team owners approve a restructured schedule. Commissioner Roger Goodell has mentioned in the last few months the need to replace preseason games in which few star players get on the field with "meaningful" football.

"The idea has merit, I think," he told The Associated Press last month. "You are taking the quality and improving it, taking two meaningless games and making them meaningful within the 20-game framework."

In late March, Goodell said he hoped a plan for restructuring the schedule could be presented to the owners in Fort Lauderdale. Regardless, there will be discussion of the matter.

"A vote has not been ruled out," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said.

Goodell and the owners are likely to be questioned about changes in the pension plan for coaches after two longtime Colts assistants, Tom Moore and Howard Mudd, retired last week rather than lose benefits. The owners voted in March to make the pension, the 401K, and the current supplemental retirement plan non-mandatory for the clubs and nine teams have dropped the program.

NFL Coaches Association executive director Larry Kennan said the coaches were never notified of the change when it was voted on in March.

Also on the docket will be possible modifications to the league's tampering rules that would create a window before free agency begins in which teams could contact the representatives of unrestricted free agents and enter contract negotiations with them. No contract could be executed during that time period.

New players union executive director DeMaurice Smith is expected to address the owners.

Many clubs are hurting financially, and Borussia could go under

These have been tough times for fans of Borussia Dortmund, who have watched the onetime international football powerhouse sink to 11th place among the 18 teams in the Bundesliga, Germany's top league. But it's Borussia investors who are really crying into their plastic cups of Pils. Shares in Germany's only publicly listed football club are trading for just $3.46, 76% below its offering price in 2000.

It gets worse. In February the team's corporate managers reported a loss of $74 million on sales of $54 million for its fiscal first half. The team, which paid too much for players who failed to perform, like forward Marcio Amoroso, is desperately trying to avoid insolvency. Creditors have temporarily suspended interest payments, and management has pledged to cut 15% from the player budget.

Borussia Dortmund is a basket case, but it's hardly the only troubled team in Germany, which is scheduled to host soccer's World Cup in a year. Just 19 of 36 first- and second-league teams are profitable, according to the German Football League (DFL). Worst hit are the teams that don't qualify for the UEFA Champions League or other international contests, which bring millions in TV revenue. "For the teams that don't play internationally, it's hard to break even," says Bernd Schiphorst, president of Berlin's Hertha BSC club, which lost $7.6 million on sales of $65 million for the latest fiscal year.

Borussia's problems are causing shock waves in financial circles. The most recent example came on Mar. 14 at a hastily called meeting of shareholders in Molsiris, a real estate fund managed by Commerzbank (CRZBY ) that owns Borussia's stadium under a sale-leaseback agreement. Fearing that Borussia could not pay its rent, Molsiris shareholders agreed to a plan that will cut the team's payments.

Borussia's situation also looks tricky for hedge-fund manager Florian Homm, a German who operates from the Spanish island of Majorca. Homm's FM Fund Management Ltd. bought a 26% stake in the Borussia corporation last year. Homm could make money if Borussia recovers, but insolvency would be a disaster for equity investors.

The Borussia crisis is having a sobering effect as well on international investment in European football. It's unlikely that more teams will go public anytime soon. "I hope it happens again, but there has been an awful lot of scorched earth," says Peter Thilo Hasler, an analyst at Munich bank HVB Group who follows the football industry. In addition, institutional investors are hesitating to buy football bonds. "Dortmund has put a black cloud over the whole industry," says Stephen L. Schechter, owner of London-based Schechter & Co., which helps European teams issue debt.

LACKING A CREDIBLE PLAN
Under pressure to polish the sport's image before World Cup comes to 12 German cities beginning in June, 2006, the DFL is leaning on teams to clean up their finances. Teams faced a Mar. 15 deadline to present detailed information. In the worst case, the DFL can withhold licenses from teams that lack a credible plan for becoming profitable. More likely, it will impose conditions on troubled teams, such as obliging them to trade high-priced players who may account for half of a team's operating costs.

The sorry financial state of pro football, which affects clubs in Spain and Italy as well, adds impetus to efforts to bring more financial discipline to the sport. Managers such as Hertha's Schiphorst are pushing the Union of European Football Assns. to impose tighter financial accountability on teams and prevent abuses such as hidden government subsidies. That could help restore sanity to player salaries. Financiers such as Schechter, who says he remains ready to help Borussia work out its $121 million debt, are demanding that teams replace top managers or make other changes in return for access to capital.

So far, German fans haven't lost faith, even in Dortmund, which continues to sell out its 69,000-seat stadium. For good reason: European soccer remains the best in the world. It's management that needs to improve its game.


By Jack Ewing in Frankfurt

Jason Martin entered the University of South Carolina’s sport and entertainment management program hoping to become the next Jerry Maguire, the mythical superagent. Instead, like most people trying to break into the sports industry, he is looking at years of low-paying, unglamorous jobs like selling ads, tickets and hot dogs.

That, of course, assumes he can find a job. In January, he started a four-month unpaid internship at the Family Circle Cup, a women’s tennis tournament, helping sponsors place their ads. He hoped his internship would lead to a salaried job.

Not this year. Because of the recession, Martin, who graduated this month with thousands of other sports management majors across the country, is continuing his job search at home in Virginia. If no full-time work turns up by September, he will enroll in a master’s degree program.

“Graduate school is definitely Plan B,” said Martin, 21, who is working this summer as a swimming coach. “My original intention was to get a job, but with the economy, there’s so many people who just graduated who can’t even get a cup of coffee with a prospective employer.”

For decades, the sports industry has been largely impervious to the economic cycle. Through booms and busts, leagues and tournaments expanded, stadiums were built and attendance and television viewership set records. Revenue from suite sales, naming rights and television contracts boomed.

But Martin and other graduates are finding that the industry’s growth is slowing, if not reversing. Students are receiving fewer job offers this spring or are accepting internships instead of salaried positions. Many of those internships are unpaid. The worry, their professors say, is that austerity may become the norm, forcing students to scale down or abandon their ESPN-fueled dreams.

“I used to teach that sport was recession-proof, but this recession proved me wrong,” said Gary Sailes, who runs the undergraduate program in sports marketing and management at Indiana. “I tell students that this is a good time to stay in school.”

The number of jobs related to spectator sports has risen steadily during the last few decades. According to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 138,700 people work in the spectator sports industry, 9.8 percent more than in 2002.

There is no accurate tally of how many jobs have been lost in the last year or so, but the anecdotal evidence is grim. The N.F.L. has cut nearly 200 jobs. The N.B.A. has eliminated 10 percent of its staff, and the United States Olympic Committee laid off more than 50 workers.

The L.P.G.A. dropped several tournaments, and Honda ended its Formula One sponsorship. The Jets will furlough some employees for two weeks, and the Cleveland Browns, the Denver Broncos and the Washington Redskins have cut jobs.

Many other teams and tournaments, stung by declines in attendance and sponsorship dollars, have stopped hiring. ESPN will not fill 200 vacant jobs. The Arena Football League canceled its season.

This is bad news for the 300 or so universities that offer sport management degrees. Every year, they churn out thousands of graduates who, even in good times, are willing to work for low pay in return for the chance to work around athletes and arenas. The teams, leagues and others in the sports industry have taken advantage of their willingness to make financial sacrifices, and may continue to do so.

“Sport management is one of the sexy industries, and it’s very hard to discourage students from joining the industry,” said Mark McDonald, the director of internships at the University of Massachusetts’s sport management program. “I feel for the students who haven’t done the preparation.”

Going to college to prepare for a job in sports is relatively new. Years ago, many jobs were filled through word of mouth or serendipitously. Marty Appel, the Yankees’ assistant public-relations director in the early 1970s, wrote to the team in 1967 asking for a summer job. He was lucky; someone was needed to answer Mickey Mantle’s mail.

“It was very much like a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants operation,” said Appel, who estimated there were only 40 people working in the team’s front office then.

By the late 1970s, Appel interviewed graduates of some of the first sport management programs who, he said, were better prepared to handle the growing list of demands on ball clubs.

Walter O’Malley, who owned the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles and who foresaw the need for better-trained employees, helped persuade Ohio University to start the first degree-granting sport management program in 1966.

The number of programs jumped fourfold in the 1980s as the industry grew along with ESPN and Title IX, according to Jacquelyn Cuneen, who teaches sport management at Bowling Green. Dozens of universities, looking to increase enrollment, rebranded their physical education departments.

Sport management programs have also been broadened to teach fitness, tourism, recreation and hospitality, prompting critics to claim that many programs do not provide students with the skills to succeed at anything other than the lowest-level jobs.

More worrisome is the realization that even at rigorous programs, students are getting about half as many job offers this year compared with other years, according to Dallas Branch, who teaches sport management at West Virginia. Yeoman’s work is demanded of graduates even from the most prestigious universities like Columbia, which started a master’s level program for midcareer students in 2006.

While attending classes there, Sean Mysel is working this summer as a stadium manager for the Sussex Skyhawks, a minor league baseball team in New Jersey. But he has spent about $25,000 on tuition and $75,000 on living expenses to attend Columbia, which he hopes will help him reach his goal of running a major league ballpark.

“I know the job market is difficult for a while, but I don’t feel I have to hit the panic button,” said Mysel, 31. “At a minimum, it will take 10 or 15 years.”

Graduate students, though, are in a better position than undergraduates because they often have several years of work experience. Kati Karottki, who graduated last weekend from Massachusetts with a bachelor’s degree in sport management, did well in college and worked as a research analyst at a company that measures sponsorships.

But as her senior year began, she planned to single out several companies as potential employers. Then Lehman Brothers collapsed in September.

“I really had to redo everything,” she said.

She reached out to alumni and had half a dozen interviews. But over and over, she heard the same thing: there are other candidates with master’s degrees with more experience who are willing to work for little. This week, she is traveling to Bristol, Conn., to interview at ESPN for an analyst’s job focused on audience research. She is not getting ahead of herself.

“They have so many applicants and people to choose from, just getting to an in-person interview, that’s a big achievement,” she said. “My classmates have resigned themselves to doing another internship or taking time off to travel.”