But the main drawback will come in the 2023-2024 academic year, when the first men’s team will go to play in Montjuïc, a stadium with a capacity for around 56,000 spectators. Joan Laporta’s board of directors and Ada Colau’s Barcelona City Council reached an agreement for the transfer of this municipal stadium for one season, before which Barça will have to spend around 20 million euros to adapt it to the demands of the League and UEFA. In any case, in the field of large constructions, the deadlines for the works are not always met exactly due to unforeseen circumstances that may arise. For this reason, the Blaugrana club, although it maintains the initial intention of only having to play one season in Montjuïc, has on the table the scenario of having to spend more time outside the Camp Nou.
“It is thought some time longer than it would play for a season. But not a whole second”, they explain to the ARA from the noble culer plant. If this scenario were to become reality, the Barcelona City Council would not stand in the way. “There would be no problem to play there for more than a year”, they point to this newspaper. It remains to be seen how the fact that the team plays there is handled given the events that are usually held there. Right now, the most distant thing in time that appears on the agenda of the Olympic Stadium is the Harry Styles concert on July 12, 2023, when Barça will not have started playing there yet.
The key: digging
According to a first-level sports construction expert and another in structural calculation consulted by the ARA, what will mark the time that Barça will finally have to be outside Camp Nou will be the excavation to build the new third stand . “The excavation is key because you don’t know what you might find there. Until the excavation and cementing of the third tier has been done, it will not be known how long the works will last”, says the first. “No matter how thorough the previous geotechnical study is, depending on the characteristics of the soil there can always be surprises,” says the second, who adds that “a decent soil must withstand at least two kilograms per centimeter square”. If the figure is lower, there are two possible solutions: “Increase the size of the shoes, which leads to an increase in the cost of the project, or go to a greater depth using concrete columns”.
On the other hand, the specialist in structural calculation exposes another example of the unexpected that can delay the works: “That water enters the structure as a result of the rains”. On the other hand, the sports construction expert believes that the demolition of the current third stand, another of the works that will be carried out while Barça plays in Montjuïc, “should not take a lot of time, it can be done in three or four months”. The possible contingencies, in this case, are lower. All these situations will have to be faced by Laporta’s board in order to carry out Barça’s most important future project. The goal of the director is to inaugurate the remodeling of the Camp Nou before the end of his mandate, in 2026.
