Half a century of the Palau Blaugrana, the great icon of the Barça sections

“I have all kinds of memories of it, but I’m proud to have played on a court that is like home to us. My whole sporting life has been linked to the Palau Blaugrana. It’s a pavilion that we love very much. , which is more intimate than the others. All the Barça teams that play there feel very comfortable “, says Nacho Solozábal, one of the players with the shirt removed. Choosing a moment is not easy. “The day they took my shirt off was very important to me, but in the end you remember the whole trajectory. Of the good and the bad matches. You learn from everyone and they all end up conditioning your memory,” he said. explains the former Catalan game director. Epi has never forgotten the day Barça withdrew his legendary number 15. “After 21 years at the club, it was the best possible way to close a stage. It was incredible and between 2,000 and 3,000 people had to to stay out because there were no more people. I remember it with great emotion because they managed to keep all the surprises a secret and I didn’t know what I would find: it was a very emotional moment, “recalls the winger.

Of the legacy and the future

To commemorate the half-century of the Palau’s life, which this Friday hosts the basketball match between Barça and Zenit St. Petersburg (9pm, DAZN), the Barça club will hold an institutional event on Saturday that will begin at the box office in the pavilion. will end at the Auditori 1899. The event will feature a wide range of sporting and institutional representation, led by President Joan Laporta and several board members. They will also be accompanied by relatives of Agustí Montal –president who will inaugurate the Palace in 1971–, relatives of the architects Francesc Cavaller and Josep Soteras –creators of the building–, representatives of the teams of the 1971 sections, in of the inauguration, and representatives of the current ensembles, the managers of the professional sports and some of the sportsmen who have his t-shirt retired to the Palace, in addition to institutional representatives, sponsors and members of the sports commissions of the club.

“The press at the time said that where we were going with a pavilion for 5,000 people, we would never fill it, but a few years later an extension had to be made because it was filled all too often,” recalls Manolo Flores. one of the players who experienced the transfer of the Palau d’Esports from Carrer Lleida to the Palau Blaugrana. The opening ceremony had exhibitions of gymnastics and judo and the performance of several sardana groups, but the first game was volleyball. The first basketball basket was scored by Miguel López Abril, Miguelito, who was missing last April.

Saturday’s celebration will be the start of a year of activities that will serve to assess this venue in which 382 titles have been won. While honoring the legacy of the Palau Blaugrana, the club is already preparing the construction of a new pavilion, but the date of completion of the works is 2026. “The initial project of the previous board was for 10,000 people, but that was insufficient. We are all aware that we need to make a new Palace for our teams to play, but also for the city to enjoy it with concerts or conventions. Unfortunately, we are a little late, but we are working to rethink this space. The aim is to have a decent Palace, at the club level “, says Elena Fort, Barça’s vice-president. “We want the new Palace to be part of the big event tours and that is why it is essential to have a capacity of between 18,000 and 22,000 seats. We will have 15,000 seats and we aspire to put 7,000 people on the track “, argues Ferran Reverter, CEO of the club. The club estimates the project, which includes the construction of a second smaller pavilion, an ice rink and a bus station, above 420 million euros.