I can 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 struck by its sheer scale and walking in at ground level was surprised to look down at the pitch.
It seems that the pitch is 2 metres or so below ground level and done so as 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 1 time it might hold more than 100,000 spectators. But there days out because the stadium is all-seater it can only hold 98,000 – that is still a lot of folk.
With such a massive crowd you might think it takes forever to empty the stadium after a match. But it is very surprising that it empties so fast and in fact the club claims to can empty in just 5 minutes. The streets round the stadium get pretty packed though and transport it difficult. The roads get blocked by folks, buses full and the metro is log jammed with people – luckily I was within walking distance.
When I first started going to watch Barça play it was after a period of relatively unacceptable performance and it's reasonable to say that Laporta inherited a club that had lost any trust in its ability to win prizes.
However , with Frank Rijkaard as coach and stars such as Ronaldinho, the club started to win. Although they didn't win the Spanish League that year they did the following. More importantly they revived their self-confidence and crowds started to revisit watch them play. These days 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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