Barça has already said goodbye to playing at Montjuïc, where it has been its home for two seasons.
It hasn't been as bad as it initially seemed, beyond the unexpected: the Lluís Companys Stadium holds half the number of people than Les Corts, and the athletics track separates the stands from the players' stands. The initially announced deterrent prices for season tickets, designed to make more tickets available to tourists, also didn't help. This put off many season ticket holders, who stopped signing up when the board had to make the major adjustment.
But climbing to the stadium was a pleasant walk, much quicker than it seems when you're looking at the mountain from Plaça Espanya, as Mayor Maragall and IOC President Samaranch discovered the afternoon they timed themselves going up and down the stadium on the escalators. This test, incidentally, was undertaken on the same day that Bakero scored that impossible header against Kaiserslautern that saved Barça from being eliminated from the European Cup, which they would go on to win at Wembley 33 years ago.
The stadium is already 36 years old, but it's holding up well. The shuttle buses have been useful, the Spanish metro stations have withstood the test, with some anxiety at the end of the match, and the motorcycle access via Miramar has been a success that should inspire some two-wheeled parking solutions for the return to Camp Nou from Les Corts on match days. The question for the City Council is once again the same: what do we do with the Montjuïc Stadium, beyond hosting concerts when the weather is nice?
