Barcelona’s Camp Nou house is the most important stadium in Europe.
It is one among world soccer’s most iconic venues and has seen loads of well-known moments down the years.
However Barcelona’s historical past is not solely tied to Camp Nou, and the stadium is ready to bear a serious transformation.
This is every little thing you want to know concerning the shared historical past and way forward for Barcelona and their Camp Nou dwelling.
Barcelona’s soccer division initially performed their dwelling video games at Camp de la Industria from 1908 onwards. Previous to that, they performed on a number of fields throughout the town, however had been compelled to play at a everlasting dwelling when the membership was vulnerable to dissolution. Camp de la Industria was located within the L’Antiga Esquerra de L’Eixample district within the south-west of the town and had a capability of 6,000.
Nonetheless, the amenities there have been less than scratch and so they departed for Camp des Les Corts (in Barcelona’s Les Corts neighbourhood) in 1922. When it opened it might maintain 20,000, however the membership’s sharp improve in recognition – significantly after the Spanish Civil Warfare – meant that it had a most capability of 60,000 by the point they left for an excellent greater stadium at Camp Nou within the Nineteen Fifties.
Barcelona left Les Corts in 1957, shifting into Camp Nou after three years of building work.
Positioned in Hospitalet de Llobregat within the western a part of city, Barcelona formally opened the stadium with the blessing of the town’s archbishop in September of that yr.
The membership have performed dwelling video games there ever since – the 2022/23 season can be their 66th yr taking part in at Camp Nou.
English audio system usually confer with Camp Nou as ‘the Nou Camp’, however that is incorrect – not least as a result of ‘Nou’ is definitely pronounced like ‘now’ versus ‘new’.
‘Camp Nou’ instantly interprets from Catalan to ‘New Area’. So actually it sounds just like the identify of a state-of-the-art NFL enviornment.
Barcelona agreed to promote Camp Nou’s naming rights to music streaming service Spotify in 2022, and from July of this yr the stadium will formally be referred to as ‘Spotify Camp Nou’.
Previous to the completion of the stadium, there have been talks for it to be referred to as ‘Estadi del FC Barcelona’, however this wasn’t as common as the ultimate identify.
As of June 2022, Camp Nou’s capability stands at 99,354.
Nonetheless, there have been plans – a few of which had been really acted upon – for the stadium to have the ability to maintain much more individuals. When the mission of constructing a brand new floor away from Les Corts started, membership members campaigned for Camp Nou to have a capability of 150,000. In the long run, they settled for 93,053.
Camp Nou was expanded forward of the 1982 World Cup in Spain in order that it might maintain over 121,000, however this was diminished to its present capability simply earlier than 2000 when all standing areas had been changed with seating.
Barcelona’s file attendance of roughly 120,000 got here in a 1986 European Cup tie with Juventus.
Conversely, the membership performed behind closed doorways in the course of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021, whereas a La Liga match in opposition to Las Palmas was performed with out spectators on account of political unrest in Catalonia in October 2017.
Camp Nou is about to bear a facelift that would value Barcelona north of €600m, making it one of the vital costly stadium developments of all time.
The renovations will see virtually an entire transformation of the stadium, with all three tiers of the bottom present process some type of remodelling, a roof being added and the capability taken to 105,000.
Barcelona will transfer out of Camp Nou and into the town’s Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium, which used to deal with rivals Espanyol, for the 2023/24 season. They’ll then return to their religious dwelling however at 50% capability the next yr in a similar way to how Actual Madrid are taking part in throughout renovation works on the Santiago Bernabeu.
Camp Nou’s renovations are anticipated to be full by the 2025/26 season.
Barcelona Femeni have performed plenty of excessive profile fixtures at Camp Nou in current instances, and even drew greater crowds than the lads’s group throughout their run to the 2021/22 Champions League remaining. The file for largest official attendance at a girls’s soccer match was twice damaged in 2022, with 91,553 and 91,648 attending video games in opposition to Actual Madrid and Wolfsburg respectively.
Camp Nou can be a house for rugby matches and live shows, whereas unofficial video games performed by the Catalonia nationwide group have additionally taken place there.
5 matches had been performed at Camp Nou in the course of the 1982 World Cup, and it additionally hosted the 1989 and 1999 European Cup/Champions League finals.
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