Barça set to abandon Camp Nou for a season with redevelopment work to start in June
The Barcelona City Council has granted the construction permit for the renovation of Camp Nou, which FC Barcelona plans to begin next June. The club will play 2023-24 season games at the Olympic Stadium.
FC Barcelona will begin renovation work on its Camp Nou stadium this June after the Catalan city council approved the license for the work with both club president, Joan Laporta, and city mayor, Ada Colau, announcing the news on Thursday.
“We will start work this coming June to carry out the remodeling works of the stadium. It will be the largest and most innovative sports and entertainment space to be built in a city,” said Laporta at a ceremony at Barcelona’s city hall.
The Espai Barça project foresees the renovation of the stadium and its surroundings, including the remodeling of the sports center and adjoining spaces. The work will force FC Barcelona to play one season (23-24 campaign) at the Montjuic Olympic stadium.
FCB to play at Camp Nou next season
In the 2022-23 season, the work “will concentrate on the first and second stands, the technological area, the stadium’s surroundings, and the exterior urbanization”. During that time, Barcelona will continue to play at the Camp Nou, whose capacity “will be practically 100%,” according to Laporta and the following 2023-2024 season, Barcelona will move to the Lluís Companys stadium in Montjuic.
The 2025/2026 season will coincide with the end of the work, although Laporta said that during that year the stadium will still not be operating at 100% capacity, although its capacity “will be higher than the 50% we foresee us having for the 2024/2025 season”.
The remodeling of the stadium and its surroundings foresees “new improvements in terms of sustainability, innovation, technology and accessibility,” Barça said in a statement. Among the new features are systems for greater energy efficiency, a 360º screen or the use of 5G connections.
Barça has requested a loan of up to 1.5 billion euros ($1.746 billion) to cover the cost of the redevelopments.