Camp Nou

Camp Nou has a capacity of 98,772, making it the largest stadium in Europe. Its official name was Estadi del FC Barcelona (FC Barcelona Stadium) until 2000, when the club membership voted to change the official name to the popular nickname, Camp Nou.

	Capacity		98,772
	Opened		24th September 1957

The Camp Nou (Catalan for “new field”, often called the Nou Camp in both Spanish and English) is an association football stadium in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The stadium has been the home of FC Barcelona since its construction in 1957. It is a UEFA 5-star rated stadium, and has hosted numerous international matches at senior level, and UEFA Champions League finals, the most recent being in 1999. It has a capacity of 98,772, making it the largest stadium in Europe. Its official name was Estadi del FC Barcelona (FC Barcelona Stadium) until 2000, when the club membership voted to change the official name to the popular nickname, Camp Nou.

Opposite Camp Nou is the Palau Blaugrana, the stadium for indoor sports and adjacent is the Ice Rink, the stadium for ice based sports. Just behind the complex is the Mini Estadi, the stadium where the FC Barcelona B plays its games.

History

Barcelona had outgrown their old stadium. Camp de Les Corts which held 60,000 supporters and the Camp Nou, built between 1954 and 1957, was designed by architects Francesc Mitjans-Miró, Lorenzo García Barbon and Josep Soteras Mauri. FC Barcelona won their first game at Camp Nou in impressive fashion, a 4-2 victory against Legia Warsaw with Eulogio Martínez scoring the first goal at the new stadium. Over 90,000 fans were present at this momentous occasion.

The capacity has varied between 93,053 at its opening to 120,000 for the 1982 FIFA World Cup before the outlawing of standing sections at the stadium brought the capacity to below 99,000 in the late 1990s.

The stadium’s facilities include a memorabilia shop, mini pitches for training matches, and a chapel for players. The stadium also houses the most visited museum in Catalonia, El Museu del Barça, which receives about 1,200,000 visits per year. The museum was inaugurated in 1984 under the presidence of Josep Lluís Nuñez. The museum shows 1,420 pieces about FC Barcelona’s history, of which 420 are trophies. The inauguration ceremony of the 1982 World Cup was held on June 13. In front of a 100,000-strong crowd, Belgium beat Argentina 1-0.

Camp Nou has been host to other important events outside the sphere of football. Notable music artists who have performed in the stadium include:

* Michael Jackson
* U2
* Pink Floyd
* Bruce Springsteen
* Frank Sinatra
* Julio Iglesias
* Sting, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band & Peter Gabriel
* The Three Tenors: Josep Carreras, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti
* Josep Carreras
* Lluís Llach

Pope John Paul II celebrated mass with a congregation of over 120,000 at Camp Nou on November 17, 1982.

Future

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the stadium, the club issued and international tender for architects to develop a project for re-modelling the stadium. The aim of the project was to turn the stadium into an integrated and highly visible urban environment. Whilst not aiming for a substantial increase in seating capacity, proposals must accommodate a minimum of 50% of seats to be under cover.

On September 18, 2007, British architect Norman Foster and his company was selected to “restructure” the Camp Nou. The plans include an extra 10,000 seats to be added and the estimated cost is €250 million.

(source .. wikipedia) reproduced under GFDL

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