Estadi Olympic Lluis Companys will act as Barcelona’s new home stadium from next season as Camp Nou will be under construction for the next three years.
Table of contents
What is Espai Barça? All you need to know
Why Are We Moving from Camp Nou?
As the project Espai Barca is about to undergo, Camp Nou will also be affected as part of the renovation. Therefore Barcelona needed an alternative to act as their temporary home and Olympic Stadium is what they have chosen.
Estadi Olympic Lluis Companys
History
Estadi Olympic Lluis Companys or The Olympic Stadium of Barcelona was originally built in 1927 for the 1929 International Expositions. In 1989 it was renovated for the 1992 Olympic Games held in Barcelona. Currently it has a seating capacity of 55,926 and is owned by the City Council of Barcelona.
From 1997-2009, Olympic Stadium acted as the home stadium for our local rivals, RCD Espanyol. They were the only LaLiga team to have Olympic Stadium as their home stadium before Barcelona. However, Barcelona Dragons – an American Football Team – was the first tenant of the stadium. They used it as their home stadium in 1991/92 and from 1995-2002.
Past Events
- Football
Other than serving as Espanyol’s home stadium from 1997-2009, Olympic Stadium has hosted nine Copa Del Rey Finals between 1930 and 2004.
In international football, both Spain and Andorra have played their home matches in Olympic Stadium.
In 8 games played here, Spain have won four and their only defeat came against Germany in 1936. However they haven’t played here since 2004.
Andorra have played 3 games as well and they lost all 3 of them. Their fixture against England in 2010 was the last football game to be played here.
- Other Events
In 1929, Olympic Stadium hosted Spain’s first official rugby international as the stadium’s first ever event. Spain won the game 9-0 against Italy.
Then in 1955 II Mediterranean Games were held at the stadium, before hosting the 5th IAAF World Cup in 1989.
Hosting 1992 Olympic Games and Paralympics can be recognized as the greatest sporting event ever happened in the stadium’s history
In 1993 Olympic Stadium hosted the Rugby League European Cup Final, where Huddersfield beat Catalans 23-22.
Olympic Stadium hosted the V World Bowl in 1997. Barcelona Dragons went on to win the game 38-23 against Rhein Fire.
In 2009 Estadi Olympic hosted the first ever Super League match to be played in Spain. However Warrington Wolves got the better of Catalan Dragons 24-12.
In 2010 Olympic Stadium hosted the 20th European Athletic Championship followed by the World Junior Athletic Championship in 2012.
Other than these, there have been 73 musical events held here.
The first to perform here was Mecano in 1989, while Coldplay’s ‘A Head Full of Dreams Tour’ in 2016 holds the record for most attendance with an audience of 111,261.
In terms of the next 3 months will be star studded at Olympic Stadium as high profiles like Coldplay, Beyonce and Weekend have their events scheduled here.
Barcelona’s Record
Barcelona played their first game at Olympic Stadium in the 1957 Copa del Rey finals. They went on to win the game 1-0 against Espanyol and clinch the title.
Thereafter there have been 12 LaLiga meetings between Barcelona and Espanyol at this very venue, where Barcelona holds the upper hand with six wins, losing only two.
Other than the final in 1957, Barcelona have played two more Copa del Rey games here.
The 1st leg of the 2001 quarterfinals against Espanyol was the first of them, where Barcelona won 2-1.
Then in 2009 the first leg of another Barcelona derby was played here and the game ended 0-0.
In 2006 Olympic Stadium hosted the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup final, which we won 1-0.
So overall Barcelona have won nine of the 16 games they played here and hold a win percentage of 56.25%
When will Barcelona Return to Camp Nou?
The project Espai Barca is supposed to be completed by 2026 but it’ll still take a few months before Camp Nou gets ready to use. Therefore, as things stand the closest possible season will be the 2027/28 season.
Will Barcelona be able to hold the dominance at Estadi Olympic just like they did in Camp Nou? Comment below.
