Camp Nou: Barcelona's stadium celebrates 60th birthday
Six decades ago, Barça's famous ground opened its doors; today, it is preparing for major redevelopment as part of the Espai Barça project.
60 years ago today, on 24 September 1957, Barcelona's Camp Nou stadium officially opened for business with a friendly match between the LaLiga giants and a Warsaw XI. The Blaugrana won 4-2, with Eulogio Martínez claiming the honour of being the first player to score a goal at the arena, which had been built to replace the Catalan club's old Les Corts home ground.
There was space for 93,053 in the new stadium, which was inaugurated under the presidency of Francisco Miró Sans and had been designed by the architects Francesc Mitjans, Josep Soteras and García Babón. Having gone five times over its original budget, however, the construction of the Camp Nou left Barça in a delicate financial state, which in turn had an impact on the field, with the club forced to sell Luis Suárez to Inter Milan for 25 million pesetas - a huge sum at the time.
Camp Nou turns 60 with major redevelopment ahead
As it now embarks on its seventh decade, the Camp Nou is preparing to undergo a process of major redevelopment which, as part of the staggered Espai Barça project, will revolutionise the appearance of the stadium and the facilities surrounding it. However, the plans are encountering delays, put down by the Barça board to hold-ups in obtaining approvals from the municipal authorities.
The remodelling of the stadium is budgeted at 400 million euros, with a further 200 million for the rest of the Espai Barça works, which include two new multi-purpose indoor sports arenas, the demolition of the Miniestadi, used for their home games by second team Barça B - and, in its place, the construction of the Estadi Johan Cruyff at the club's Sant Joan Despí training ground.
Over the past 60 years, the Camp Nou has already experienced several facelifts, the most important of which came ahead of the 1982 World Cup in Spain and saw the ground's capacity raised to 120,000. The subsequent introduction of all-seater requirements led that figure to fall back down to the stadium's current 99,354.
