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 – in fact 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 zero was stunned to look down at the pitch.
It turns out that the pitch is 2 metres or so below ground level and done in order to increase the stadium’s capacity at some particular point in its history. The Nou Camp was opened in 1957 and though it's been extended and expanded since then, at 1 time it might hold more than 100,000 spectators. Nevertheless there days out because the stadium is all-seater it can only hold 98,000 – that's still plenty of people.
With such a large crowd you might think it takes a very long time to unpack the stadium after a match. However , it is extremely surprising that it empties so fast and actually the club claims to can empty in just 5 minutes. The streets round the stadium get pretty packed though and transport it tough. The roads get blocked by people, buses full and the metro is log jammed with people – luckily I was within walking distance.
When I first started going to look at Barça play it was after a period of relatively inadequate performance and it is fair to say that Laporta inherited a club that had lost any faith in its capability to win trophies.
But with Frank Rijkaard as coach and stars such as Ronaldinho, the club started to win. Though they didn't win the Spanish League that year theydid the following. As significantly they revived their self-esteem and crowds started to come back to watch them play. Nowadays it’s far harder 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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