I remember the first time I went to the Nou Camp to see FC Barcelona it was early 2004 and Ronaldinho was playing in those days – actually it was actually the first season that Joan Laporta was the president of Bara. When I walked into the stadium I was wowed by its sheer scale and walking in at floor level was stunned to look down at the pitch.
It turns out the pitch is 2 metres or so below ground level and done to increase the stadium’s capacity at some specific point in its history. The Nou Camp was opened in 1957 and though it's been extended and expanded since that time, at one time it may hold more than 100,000 spectators. However , there days out as the stadium is all-seater it can only hold 98,000 – that's still plenty of folk.
With such a huge crowd you may think it takes a very long time to empty the stadium after a match. But it is very surprising that it empties so fast and actually the club claims to can empty in just 5 minutes. The streets around the stadium get pretty packed though and transport it tough. The roads get blocked by folks, buses full and the metro is log jammed with people – conveniently I was inside walking distance.
When I initially began going to observe Barça play it was after a period of comparatively poor performance and it is fair to say that Laporta inherited a club that had lost any trust in its ability to win prizes.
Nevertheless with Frank Rijkaard as coach and stars like Ronaldinho, the club started to win. Though they did not win the Spanish League that year they did the following. More importantly they revived their self esteem and crowds started to return to watch them play. Nowadays it’s much more difficult to get good seats at all but matches against the lowliest of teams as season tick holders and club members have the pick of what’s available.
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