Barcelona’s Camp Nou Move for Next Season

Barcelona have wrapped up their 27th La Liga title following a dominant domestic season in Spain. However, if Barca are to defend their league crown next season, they will have to do it without the home comfort of Camp Nou, as the club’s iconic stadium and the surrounding area are undergoing redevelopment over the next few months. As such, Barcelona will play their home games next season at the Estadi Lluis Companys, a 55,000 capacity stadium situated on Montjuic, a large hill to the southwest of Barcelona which hosted the summer Olympics back in 1992. The £1.3 billion project will transform Camp Nou into a 105,000-seater stadium which the club state will be ‘at the avant-garde of technology.’ The venue will include a retractable roof with 30,000 square metres of solar panels, with the energy generated to be used to power a new 360-degree LED display which will span the entirety of the stadium. Plans to regenerate Camp Nou were approved by members nine years ago, but various issues has limited them to small scale improvements thus far. New office space will be incorporated into the stadium, whilst the area outside the ground will feature green space, a new hotel, an ice rink and a small stadium to be used by the club’s basketball team. Barca hope to return to Camp Nou by November 2024 to coincide with celebrations for their 125th anniversary, although work will continue until 2026.