The Camp Nou is gradually disappearing. Every day that passes, more seats and memories pile up in the surroundings of the stadium that has been the home of thousands of Barcelona fans. Now it will be Montjuïc who will dress up for the matches of the teams led by Xavi Hernández and Jonatan Giráldez, although many of the culés who have spent years religiously attending the Barça temple every weekend will not accompany them. Despite the fact that Barça refuses for now to offer official figures, the reluctance of Barcelona fans to face the adventure of the Olympic Stadium is evident. EL PERIÓDICO has spoken with three generations of culés who have a season ticket at the Camp Nou and who recount their reasons for going to Montjuïc or not.
Antonia Carbonell (68 years old)
“I am very sorry, because I have been a member of Barça for 50 years, but next year I will not go to Montjuïc,” confesses Antonia Carbonell. “One of the main reasons is that all the games are put on for us at nine at night. I live in La Sagrera, I have to take the metro to Plaza España and from there the shuttle bus. And who knows how the buses work. It will be a catastrophe,” he says with some resignation.
Antonia is also in charge of her 97-year-old mother. “If I was 30, I wouldn’t mind going up to the Olympic Stadium,” she explains. Going to the Camp Nou was easier, Montjuïc is “very far away”. “It will be very sad. First they gave us prices that… Fabric. And when they saw that people were not signing up they had to make the reduction. They thought they would have a lot of people. And that in the Camp Nou there was room for almost 100,000 spectators , and Montjuïc does not even reach 50,000”, he adds.
The general feeling is that the club has forgotten the usual member. “They have annoyed the partner of a lifetime. What I will do is, if one day there is an attractive match, I will buy tickets if they sell well. And if not, nothing happens,” confesses Antonia, who already wants it to happen this year to return every weekend to what has been his second home.
Edu Boada (27 years old)
“It doesn’t make sense to be able to go see Barça and say no,” says Edu Boada, a culé who has had his seat at the Spotify Camp Nou since the 2015-2016 season, after 10 years on the waiting list. “When I could afford it, why wouldn’t I have to go? I went to the Coldplay concert looking at what the climb was like. It’s not as dramatic as it seems. Last year I was away all year, but this season I promised myself I would go to every game I have made the full of 25 meetings”, he admits proud and vindictive.
Boada admits that there is a point of romanticism in his decision. “I live one street from the Camp Nou. I have not done the ritual of moving. There is a point of wanting to discover what it is to go to the Olympic Stadium, to move. It has to do with the romantic, it is what makes me most excited”, recognize. What’s more, he predicts a unique season in Montjuïc dressed as a culé. “The people who will want to go there will be the ones who want to go cheer on Barça. There will be no tribunes. Having the athletics track will be very hard. But maybe we’ll see something special and different than anything we’ve experienced at the Camp Nou”, he concludes.
Joan Solé (33 years old)
100% attendance at Camp Nou. Joan Solé has not lost a single game that has been played in the last season at the culé temple. Now, with the memory of his farewell at the Camp Nou still in his retina, he looks towards Montjuïc without enthusiasm. “The link we have with the stadium is very cold. It is a space that is far away from you and with the athletics tracks in front of the stands it still makes you less of a participant,” says Solé, who started going to the Camp Nou with her father. and his grandfather.
He has decided that next year he will not go up to the Olympic Stadium, although that was not his initial intention. “I had decided that I was going to Montjuïc, but when they did the press conference and said that the price tripled the subscription fee… [política luego corregida por la directiva]. And it also meant a single payment in the month of August. In addition, I noticed the services that exist, and that the field has worse visibility and less accessibility, “he explains.
“The social mass of Barça, if you treat it as an adult, responds to you. When the club is in bad shape, we want the board of directors to be clear: if they put the highest price on me, they tell me it’s to make a contribution. My grandfather He did it years ago: you helped the club and they put your name on the field. Sometimes my grandfather would tell me: ‘Let’s go with granny!’ And we would see the name”.
Pol Alonso (21 years old)
Like Solé, Pol Alonso will not occupy a seat next year at the Olympic Stadium. “I don’t like the decision to go to Montjuïc, especially since it was Espanyol’s home for many years,” Alonso argues. “I understand that there weren’t many other options either. I consider that we have to try to go through this procedure as quickly as possible to return to our stadium as soon as possible. I won’t go to Montjuïc, basically, because it is worse communicated than the Camp Nou. We don’t know yet if they will let you ride a motorcycle to the top and, based on the initial prices they set, we already decided that we were not going. It is not our field, “he argues.
The first prices of the season tickets set by the board conditioned the culés members to get a season pass for Montjuïc. Despite the subsequent reduction, many of them had already made the decision. “At no time did I consider going with the second prices again. The decision was already made. We already had many doubts. And later, when we saw that outrage, we decided that we would not go,” he confesses.
Gerard Jordana (27 years old)
There are those who have made the decision to go to Montjuïc next season as an exercise of responsibility with the Barcelona entity. “I have decided to go up to the Estadi Olímpic out of responsibility for the financial situation of the club and as a vote of confidence in the board,” confesses Gerard Jordana. Following Edu Boada’s line, supporting the team next season seems necessary. “In anticipation that perhaps a significant part of the people attending the stadium will be a less regular public, such as tourists, I believe that the members and season ticket holders who can afford it have a responsibility to support the team. It is essential to reverse the situation, and for the team to function and win titles”, he adds.
“From a very young age I started going to the stadium, first with my grandparents and now I do it with my brother. After the year and a half that we couldn’t attend because of the pandemic, I don’t want to spend so much time again without seeing Barça in straight”.
Joan Deixens (44 years old)
The blaugrana supporters clubs have also had to make a difficult decision. The Peña Barcelonista de Benicarló has decided not to renew their subscriptions for the coming season. “In the club we are about 250 fans and we have five cards,” says Joan Deixens. “We have decided not to go because of the initial prices they put, the uncertainty about the draws for the seats and the accessibility.”
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“We held a meeting. We considered taking only two or three season tickets out of the five. But with the draw involved, and not having access to the ‘seient lliure’, there was too much uncertainty. If it had been otherwise, we would have reserved places for Montjuïc”, he says. In a regular season at the Camp Nou, the club released the card in 40% of the matches.
In each meeting, the five chosen spend three hours going up to Barcelona and three more going down. “You are supposed to get to Montjuïc by bus, but certainly not by car. We always come by bus. Each person pays 20 euros. But if the bus is not full, you have to pay more.”