Camp Nou has a capacity of 98,772, making it the largest stadium in Europe, and the eleventh largest in the world. Camp Nou (Catalan) means "New Field". It was built between 1954 and 1957,designed by architects Francesc Mitjans-MirĂł, Lorenzo Garc?*a Barbon and Josep Soteras Mauri.
One of the most spectacular stadiums in the world.I've never been there,but I should go there in two years with my school.
Last edited by M.L. King; 30th January 2009 at 03:28 PM.
CAMP NOU
Barcelona's history is full of glorious and unforgettable moments, divided into three periods. In early days the club often switched the playground, in the second stage the club stayed at Les Corts and in the third stage our beloved club settled on the ground of »the Camp Nou«.
After the war Les Corts couldn't sustain the multitude of fans, so the necessity of a new stadium provoked the construction of the biggest stadium in Europe. So, on September 19, 1950, FC Barcelonas Board of Directors, presided by Agust?* Montal Galobart, purchased a plot of land next to the Maternitat, fairly close to the site of the old Les Corts ground.
Agust?* Montal Galobart
A troublesome period followed, when the new stadiums commission 9, 1951) changed their minds about the site of the project, opting for an area at the top of the Diagonal. Negotiations with the Administrators bore little fruit and never reached a definitive agreement. The issue was left on hold until Francesc MirĂł-Sans was elected president of FC Barcelona (November 14, 1953). The new president was particularly insistent that the project for a new stadium should go ahead immediately and one of the first things he did after coming to power (February 18, 1954) was to situate the new site on the land purchased in 1950 and not at the top of the Diagonal. So it was that, on March 28, in front of 60,000 fans, he laid the first stone of the Camp Nou, watched by the president of the Civil Government, Felipe Acedo Colunga, and blessed by the Archbishop of Barcelona, Gregorio Modrego.
The construction
The architects of the new stadium were Francesc Mitjans MirĂł and Josep Soteras Mauri, under collaboration with Lorenzo Garc?*a BarbĂłn. One year later the club handed the construction to the INGAR SA Company, which put forward an estimate for 66,620,000 pesetas for completion of the building in 18 months. However, the eventual cost was considerably higher than the original proposal, reaching 288 million pesetas, a figure that had to met by successive emissions of obligatory mortgages (100 million pesetas) and bank loans (60 million pesetas). This was enough to finance the construction of the stadium, but the Club would be repaying that debt for several years afterwards.
The Inauguration
Stadium was inaugurated on September 24, 1957. A special commission was organised whose task was to organise the kind of opening ceremony that the occasion warranted, with two people in charge of the operation: Aleix Buxeres (public relations) and Nicolau Casaus (organisation). Those days will go down in club history, and were set to words by the great poet Josep M. de Sagarra in his sonnet titled 'Azul Grana', while an anthem was written in honour of the new FC Barcelona stadium, with Josep Badia putting the words to Adolf Cabané’s music.
The terraces of the Camp Nou, still not quite complete, were opened to more than 90,000 people, as representatives of all of the football clubs of Catalonia paraded across the field, along with members of the sections of the Club, Barcelona fan clubs and different teams belonging to the Club. The aforementioned hymn was then sung, followed, at four thirty in the afternoon, by the inaugural match. FC Barcelona played a Polish team from Warsaw. The Barcelona line-up in the new stadium was formed by: Ramallets, Olivella, Brugué, Segarra, Vergés, Gensana, Basora, Villaverde, Mart?*nez, Kubala and Tejada. In the second half the Barcelona eleven was the following: Ramallets, Segarra, Brugué, Gr?*cia, Flotats, Bosch, Hermes, Ribelles, Tejada, Sampedro and Evaristo. The game ended with Barcelona winning 4-2 with goals from Eulogio Mart?*nez (who, in the 11th minute scored the first ever goal at the Camp Nou), Tejada, Sampedro and Evaristo. During the break, 1,500 members of the Agrupació Cultural Folklòrica de Barcelona danced an enormous sardana and 10,000 doves were set free. And so began a new era in the history of FC Barcelona.
Inovations and renovations
Since the day it was opened, the Camp Nou has been improving day by day and it has adapted itself to the passing of time. Over the years the Club has renewed different areas of the installations and the surroundings, new areas have been built and the stadium has been equipped with the latest technology. These are the renovations which the Camp Nou has gone through.
The new Camp NouPope's Visit
On November 17, 1982, FC Barcelona was honoured by the visit of Pope John Paul II, who performed a solemn mass at the Camp Nou before 120.000 believers, who stoically tolerated the heavy rain that fell that day. President Josep Llu?*s Núñez presented His Holiness with membership card number 108,000.
"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." Martin Luther King Jr.
This is nice. Who needs wikipedia? 8-)
Those are from the Gamper cup
Cruyff:" El futbol es un juego al que se juega con el cerebro . "
Those are nice pics. Maybe we should rename video subforum into Multimedia and place a pic thread over there
When are the new Camp nou supposed to be finished? =)
Correct me if I´m wrong but I read somewhere in 2012.
Bahrain's No.1 Culé
The works are planned to be finished by early 2013.
"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." Martin Luther King Jr.
Incredible.British sports fans have voted Barcelona's Camp Nou as the bests sports stadium in the world.
In a survey on the "Seven Sporting Wonders of the World", the Camp Nou finished second behind Monaco's Formula One street circuit.
The survey was conducted by Barclays Spaces for Sports, a programme launched in 2004 to create sustainable sports facilities in disadvantaged communities across the UK.
"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." Martin Luther King Jr.
It`s a British press survey, but still nice :smile:
Great news, finally the biggest stadium in Spain gets some recognition .. Wait till the designs are done on it .. It´ll cost us alot, but will surely be something people from all over the world would want to visit.
Bahrain's No.1 Culé
I don't really know what I think about the new Camp Nou... I mean it will be an amazing arena and it will look like no other arena does... the Barcelona/Gaudi insperated design will be fantastic...
But still, it feels like it will be a little locked up... The way it looks now is really cool with no roof, all Camp Nou opens up for the sky... it is really nice, especially in the games when it's dark outside.
I'm afraid it will loose it's charm and look too modern, that you'll get tired of it.
I'm also a little afraid of changing Camp Nou so much because all of the great memories and it's historic look...
Anyway, I hope it will look good in the end.
Has anyone of you been to Allianz Arena? is it to "closed up"? I think our stadium will have the same basic design.
I wasn`t at Bayern`s new ground but my friend was there in November and was impressed.
I`m still against the change though.
I think plans for the new stadium have been postponed for a while because of the economic climate.
Barca's management announced yesterday about the new statue that's about to be built in tribute to the late László Kubala Stecz, who's consider to be Barca's greatest player of all times by many. The statue, that will be 2m high, will be presented at June 15th, and will be located somewhere around the Camp.
Kubala played in Barca for 10 years (1951-1961) and won 4 Championships, 5 Copa del Generalisimo, 2 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, 1 Copa Latina & 2 Copa Eva Duarte. He scored 256 goals in 329 games for Barca.
Last edited by Ron; 20th March 2009 at 07:09 PM.
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