Barcelona moving to Montjuic reminds us how far Serie A still has to go

The nemesis of Camp Nou exists. It is located in Barcelona, ​​but it is not the (modern) home of the Espanyol cousins. The supremacy of the city has nothing to do with it, there is not even the remote possibility of undermining the Blaugrana from being the symbol of the Catalans and of the city. But there is another stage, another world, perhaps the closing door between two eras.

From the 1992 torchbearer to Barcelona 2024

1900 and 2000 greet each other ideally within the story told by “Lluís Companys” stadium, even if very few know him by the name which, since 2001, recalls the figure of the former president of Catalonia who was killed in the nearby castle. The stadium was built in 1927 for the 1929 Universal Exhibition, but it entered forever in the memory of sportsmen when, in 1989, it was renovated to become the main stadium of the 1992 Olympic Games.

Now will have to host Barcelona’s home games throughout the 2023/2024 season, an almost impossible task for a facility which, while well maintained, has a capacity of just 54,000 spectators (he reached 67,007 during the Olympics, ed), very few for his new role.

In fact, those who arrive on Montjuïc think more of being in an Italia 90 facility than in the modernity of the stadiums of the very rich Liga. It doesn’t even seem to be in that city that teems with business and tourism. The hill overlooking the roofs of Barcelona can only be reached by choice: many do it for the view, others for the castle and the greenery, some for the memories of a summer 30 years ago.

The reasons for visiting the 1992 Olympic area still today have remained unchanged: if you lower your gaze along the sidewalk that leads to the nearby Olympic Museum, it seems to be in Hollywood since we can find the footprints of numerous sports champions. The museum space itself is dedicated to Joan Antoni Samaranch, president of the IOC between 1980 and 2001, who was one of the greatest supporters of the 1992 Olympic Games. There is also something else in the so-called “Olympic ring”: next to the historic facade of the stadium, there are the other buildings of that edition as well as the spectacular trampolines where the dives “into” the city of Guadì were admired.

A throwback

Up here the Olympic stadium represents what is no longer the Spanish championship: there is the athletics track, there are spectators exposed to the elements, the curves far from the pitch, one lives in a world that seems decades away from the billions of the League. And that he will be back here, at least for next season, since Barcelona will have to move from their iconic stadium. More modernity is needed to survive in this century, but by a paradox of fate, Blaugrana fans will have to live a whole year in his nemesis.

In reality, the Olympic facility, before becoming a Sunday meeting place for families, hosted rivals Espanyol for years, with more forgettable matches than anything else, excluding two Spanish Cups now long gone. Their history does not count the titles of their city rivals, in recent decades the gap has widened, yet the same choices have been made thinking about the future. Although in the suburbs, the Cornellà-El Prat plant has also enriched their coffers.

One and a half billion euros for the new Camp Nou

The “new Camp Nou” will be finished in 2025 if there are no unforeseen delays. Even if it is the renovation of an existing stadium, here there have been no problems with the Pnrr as in Florence: the Barça partners simply approved, in December 2021, the financing of the works and the creation of a new space called “Palau Blaugrana”. This project, known globally as “Espai Barça”, is an investment of 1.5 billion euros to build the Palau and to renovate the stadium: the works will increase its capacity up to 111,000 spectators (from the current 99,354), but we will have to be patient to enjoy it. After a year in the Olympic hermitage, Barcelona should return to the Camp Nou as early as autumn 2024, albeit with a 50 percent reduced capacity. A great sacrifice for a facility that aims to become a reference point for all of the world’s sports facilities. Quite the opposite of what happens in Serie A.

How many differences with Italy!

The contrast between the memory of the past and the necessary run-up to modernity seems like a fierce criticism of our country. Maybe it really is. Even today, the Montjuïc stadium represents the symbol of an Olympics which was an opportunity for infrastructural and social development; From the moment Barcelona was chosen as the Olympic venue in 1986, the city began to transform completely. A frantic countdown began to create sports facilities, including a port that did not exist until then, an Olympic village that modernized an entire neighborhood, and strengthen the entire transport network with two new terminals at El Prat airport and the creation of road axes such as Glòries and the Ronda Litoral and Ronda de Dalt ring roads. In short, what Italy ’90 would have wanted to be.

It ended differently for us, the facilities of that World Cup have become fetishes and no longer allow us to distinguish between the functions of a monumental stadium and those of the projects that have yet to arrive in our championship. We don’t even have a tower to remember: Calatrava’s on Montjuïc has become part of the urban skyline. A signal to live beyond nostalgia.