Camp Nou - FC Barcelona

Camp Nou (Catalan for "new field", often reversed in English to become Nou Camp) is a football (soccer) stadium in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
It has a capacity of 98,787 - making it the largest stadium in Europe. The stadium is the home ground of FC Barcelona. Its official name was Estadi del FC Barcelona (translates as FC Barcelona Stadium) until 2000, when the club membership vote to change the official name to the popular nick name 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.

Camp Nou on matchday
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 in the future
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the stadium, the club was calling for an international tender for architects to develop a project for re-modelling the stadium. In September 2007 the award-winning UK architect Lord Foster was declared the winner of this €250m face-lift .
Construction of the new Camp Nou work will begin in 2009 and is due to be completed by the start of the 2011-2012 season.
The aim of the project is 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. Reconstruction plans are being considered; addition of a few stands and restrooms. There will be about 120,000 seats.

• The FC Barcelona Camp Nou Stadium (Barça) see map
  Address: Avinguda Aristides Maillol, s/n
  08028, Barcelona.
• HOW TO GET TO THE CAMP NOU STADIUM BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT?
  Bus lines: 7, 15, 43, 67, 68, 74, 75, L12, L50, L60 and L62.
  Metro: Line 3 (Get off at Maria Cristina or Les Corts) and Line 5 (Get off at Collblanc or Badal).

Video: Inauguration of the Camp Nou 24/09/1957