I grew up in the city, living very close to the FCB stadium, so close, that I could hear the crowd yelling GOAL from our house every time the team was scoring during a game. I was attending elementary school next to the place where the old stadium used to be, just about 1km away from its actual location, the place ended up having a sports and pool area and some apartment buildings constructed during the years I was attending the school.
I am old enough to remember black and white TV. Football games were broadcast on Sundays on TV and teams had to wear quite different color shirts so it was easy to distinguish the different team players on a B&W TV set,
When still in elementary school, I remember starting to go to the stadium when the team was playing at home just about every other week. Kids were allowed to enter for free if they were coming with an adult, and as FCB has many members all we had to do was ask any older couple entering the stadium if they could pretend we were coming together and let us pass through. Once in, you could sit on an empty space and if it was a pretty crowded match there were always the stairs as the last option.
I still remember the first time I was able to see the green color of the grass from up high while listening to the crowd cheering at the players when they were coming out from the locker rooms to start the match, I was fascinated by all the atmosphere, and so used to seeing it on the B&W TV set that I was shocked by the incredible green color the grass had in reality.
The stadium was built in 1057, just 10 years before I was born and they named it "Camp Nou" which means New Field in Catalan language, it increased its capacity a few years later when I was already going to see the games, so I remember quite well that period of time. The photo is from the last time I attended a game with my son last April, you could already see the top south area had been buried. This other shot was taken facing north a few days before when my wife and I decided to take the stadium and museum tour as we already knew everything would be torn down at the beginning of the summer.
This season, the team is playing at the Olympic stadium, so all the work can speed up to try to finish most of the work and relocate to the new stadium sometime during the next season. When I drive next to the area, I can see the excavators tearing everything down and nostalgia comes to my head remembering those days I would go to watch the game with some friends. This is are shots taken from a video published a couple of days ago.
In a way, it is as if part of my childhood memories are being erased as the whole building is being destroyed, but I am sure it will be very nice to go to the new stadium once it is finished as the published pictures of the model really look impressive.
I can't wait to see the Nou Camp Nou (The New New Field) stadium finished and attend one of the games sitting in the middle of more than 100 thousand people crowd and live again those feelings I had when I was a child.
