Barcelona Stadium Nou Camp: Age, Fact, Lego,Renovation and competition hosted
Age
Barca Stadium Camp Nou is a football stadium in Barcelona, Spain. It was opened in 1957 and has been the home stadium of FC Barcelona since its completion. With a seating capacity of 99,354, it is the largest stadium in Spain and Europe, and the fourth largest association football stadium in the world in capacity.
Renovation and expansion
Fact about Nou Camp
The main reason for deciding to build a new stadium was Ladislao Kubala. The Barcelona star was a great attraction for all the fans, but the capacity of Les Corts, which had been extended to 48,000, wasn’t enough. The board of directors paid attention to the supporters who were asking for a new ground and years later presented the Camp Nou.
The building works took three years to complete (1954-1957). It was inaugurated on the 24th of September that year, coinciding with the annual festival of Mercé, the patron saint of the city of Barcelona, in a period in which Francesc Miró-Sans was the club president.
The first game was played against a Warsaw Select XI. The Catalan side got their first win at the stadium (4-2).
Eulogio Martínez was the first to score at the Camp Nou. The Paraguayan player, who wore the Barcelona shirt for seven years, remains in the memory of all 'azulgrana' fans.
Camp Nou got ready for its first official match on the 6th of October, 1957, when the team managed by Domènech Balmanya welcomed Jaén, who they beat 6-1.
After the ground’s first match, Barcelona went on a 13 game unbeaten run (11 wins and 2 draws). Their first loss didn’t come until the 2nd of February, 1958. It was Real Madrid who won for the first time (0-2) at the 'azulgrana' manor.
In 1992 it hosted the Olympic Games. During the celebration of the games, Spain played a game against Poland, which they won 3-2.
Last season (2014/15), Barcelona achieved their 1000th victory at home. They did it against Sevilla FC, winning 5-1.
For a time it competed with the Maracaná for the title of world's biggest stadium, but its capacity (120,000 spectators) had to be reduced for health and safety reasons.
It is currently the stadium with the biggest capacity in Europe, with 99,354 spectators.
Nou Camp Lego
FC Barcelona issued an international tender to remodel the Nou Camp as a celebration of the stadium's fiftieth anniversary and the main objective was to make the facility an integrated and highly visible urban environment. The club sought to increase the seating capacity by 13,500, with at least half of the total seating being undercover. The intention was to make it the third-largest stadium in the world in terms of seating capacity, after the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium in North Korea (114,000 capacity) and the Narendra Modi Stadium in India (110,000 capacity).
On 18 September 2007, the British architect Norman Foster and his company were selected to "restructure" Camp Nou. The plan included the addition of roughly 6,000 seats, for a maximum capacity of 105,000, at an estimated cost of €250 million.[36] The FC Barcelona board approved the sale of their former training ground (the Mini Estadi) against significant opposition in order to finance the remodelling. The project was planned to begin in 2009 and to be finished for the 2011–12 season.[37] However, due to the 2008 financial crisis, the sale of the training ground was postponed and likewise the remodelling project. In May 2010, Sandro Rosell, then a candidate for president of FC Barcelona, dismissed the possibility of selling the Mini Estadi, saying it would be indefensible to "sell the crown jewels", and his election on 30 June 2010 effectively halted the plan to remodel Camp Nou.[38][39]
In January 2014, Barcelona's board of directors rejected the option of building a new stadium due to financial constraints and instead opted to remodel the Camp Nou to bring the capacity up to 105,000.[40] The project was expected to run from 2017 to early 2021, with a cost of around £495 million (€600 million), making it one of the most expensive expansions on a per-seat basis.[41][42] A refined plan was released in May 2015 showing plans to add a canopy over the stands and showing the plans for seating expansion in greater detail.[43] Construction was planned in 2019 to begin in summer 2020 and to be completed in 2024.
2020 saw a change in power as former Barcelona president Bartomeu was forced to resign due to poor performance of the club both on and off the field and after the election, Joan Laporta was elected as the new president and made some changes to the initial plan to Nou camp renovation.
With president Laporta hoping to start the 3-4 year revamping operation in the summer of 2022, Barca are likely to play their home fixtures at the Johan Cruyff Stadium.
The project, which has been planned since 2016, is a costly one though and because of Barcelona's sizeable debt, they need to borrow the funds from elsewhere.
Reports say Barcelona are in talks with investment bank Goldman Sachs over a £1.27bn loan to finance the Nou Camp redevelopment.
Competition hosted
Barcelona stadium was one of the 17 venues of the 1982 FIFA World Cup and hosted the following games below:
13 June 1982 Argentina 0–1 Belgium Group 3 (first round) 95,000
28 June 1982 Poland 3–0 Belgium Group A (second round) 65,000
1 July 1982 Belgium 0–1 Soviet Union 45,000
4 July 1982 Soviet Union 0–0 Poland 65,000
8 July 1982 Poland 0–2 Italy Semi-finals 50,000
Source: laliga, wikipedia
Henry
just love writing about football and playing video games, love my quiet time also. contact me @ [email protected]
