Since its completion way back in 1957, FC Barcelona has played their matches at Camp Nou. With its stunning capacity of 99,354 people, Camp Nou is the third largest football stadium in the world and a place synonymous with FC Barcelona. But next season that will change, even though it’s only temporary.
Next season FC Barcelona won’t be playing any matches at Camp Nou. Feels a bit weird, right? Well, the reason for it is an obvious one. Camp Nou is undergoing renovations and won’t be open for business again until the 2024-25 season. Instead, FC Barcelona will play at Lluis Companys Olympic Stadium, better known as “Montjuic” stadium. But what do we know about the stadium? Quite a lot actually – and remember that next season is a once in a lifetime experience to see Barca play home games at a different stadium.
Montjuic – a brief history
In 1929, Barcelona held the International Exposition and for that reason the stadium was built. It was opened in 1927 and the hope in the city was that the stadium would help Barcelona’s bid to the 1936 Summer Olympics. It did not. However, in 1992 Montjuic got its revenge when Barcelona was awarded the 1992 Summer Olympics. The Olympics in 1992 is, mostly because of The “Dream Team”, one of the most famous Olympics of all time and the stadium was of course a big part of the hype. The stadium was renovated in 1989 to be more modern for the Olympics.
But the opening match in Montjuic was not a football match or any other of the more obvious sports. No, it was a rugby game, Spain’s first international one ever, against Italy.
After that the stadium has been used as a home ground for RCD Espanyol, from 1997 until 2009, before Espanyol moved to freshly built RCDE Stadium.
But this time around it’s the big dog FC Barcelona who will be playing there. And why not take the chance to watch FC Barcelona play home games here together with over 55,000 other Barca fans? It will probably never happen again. As a matter of fact, FC Barcelona may never play another home game at any other stadium again after this season.
So: iconic stadium – check. One of the best teams in football – check. Get the chance to see said team on said arena for one season only – check.
