The Camp Nou (name that in Catalan means “new field”), often also mentioned, erroneously, like Nou Camp, is the stage of Soccer Barcelona Club. At the time of his inauguration, in 1957, it was baptized like Estadi of F.C. Barcelona (When the stage was in construction, by years 50, was going to be called “stage Joan Gamper”, but the initiative did not take to effect. It was rumored that the then president of the Barça, Francesc Watch, was deluded whereupon the stage would take its own name, as in the case of the Bernabéu in Madrid. The problems of the last phase of the presidency of Watch reaffirmed the name that popularly had begun to occur him, Camp Nou.), although in 2001 it adopted the present name officially, [1] that is the denomination with which popularly always it has been known.
With his present capacity of 98,787 spectators, one is the soccer stage with more capacity of Europe and tenth about the world. It is also, therefore, the stage with greater capacity of catalogued with category the Elite according to the UEFA. It is located in the avenue Arístides Maillol, in the Barcelonian district of Them Corts, closely together of the avenue Diagonal, one of the main arteries of Barcelona.
It was constructed during the mandate of the president of the FC Barcelona Francesc Watch, that also impelled the project by the problems of capacity of the old field of Them Corts and by the rivalry with the Real Madrid, that shortly before had constructed its new stage, the one of Chamartín, at the moment Santiago Bernabéu. The project was ordered to architect Francesc Mitjans, brother cousin of Watch and neighbor his, since they inhabited in the same building of the street Friend of Barcelona, also constructed by Mitjans. The first stone was placed in March of 1953, with an initial budget of 67 million pesetas. Nevertheless, problems in the construction, mainly derived from unexpected anomalies of the subsoil, expanded the accomplishment and mainly they increased in price until 288 2 million [] that finally cost, to which also contributed the acquisition of lands to his around. The club trusted supporting the cost with the sale of the land of the field of Them Corts, but the City council of Barcelona took ten years in recalificar it, giving rise to a period of certain economic scarcity, until finally the Spanish dictator at that time, Francisco Franco, authorized the re-qualification of the lands of Them Corts and ended the crisis of the Barcelonist organization.
The stage was inaugurated the 24 of September (Day of the Mercè, employer of Barcelona) of 1957. That one year the FC Barcelona left their old stage of Them Corts to release a “new field” that gave capacity to the thousands of fans who wanted to attend in direct the parties of Barcelona de Kubala and company, and did not fit in the old stage, although it counted on 60,000 localities. The “Camp Nou” was inaugurated with a capacity near the 90,000 localities, becoming already 1957 in one of greatest and majestic of the world. Being greatest of Europe.
Initially it was predicted that the new stage took the name of the founder of the club, Hans Gamper, but before the opposition of the authorities of the time, the directive of the moment chose to inaugurate it with a more neutral name: Stage of the Club of Barcelona Soccer. [3] Despite, the field always was known popularly like the Camp Nou, with reference to “old” the field of Them Corts. It took to president Enric Llaudet, eight years after the inauguration, to summon a consultation between the partners to decide the official name of the enclosure. Stage of the CF Barcelona was voted, in front of the proposals Estadi Barça and Estadi Camp Nou. However, this last one continued being the most common denomination between the press and the fans. For this reason, in 2001 president Joan Gaspart summoned a new consultation between the partners, who in this occasion mainly decided to make official the name of Camp Nou, in front of the Estadi options Joan Gamper and until then Estadi official of Soccer the Barcelona Club. [4]
In season 2007-2008 the t-shirts of the FC Barcelona took around the shield of the equipment a legend commemorating the 50 anniversary of the stage.