The full story is right below: http://www.futvol.com/mediapark/pages/HOME_articulos/1,4165,1-74-43850-0,00.html The story said that the location is right between the cities of El Prat and Cornellá. I'm not all that familiar with the geography of Catalunya. So if somebody would tell how the area is and how close it is to the bigger cities I would appreciate it. Pic of new ground And another one
Update... They're aiming for the start of the 2005-06 season for the new stadium opening. http://www.rcdespanyol.com/rcdespan...source=ComponentView&Node=7209037&New=new2216
Prat is about 5.5 miles southeast of the heart of Barcelona, or about 9 km. You can go to mapquest.com to see the location. Cornella is slightly northwest of Prat.
I just got back from Barcelona and went to the game at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday night. It's a beautiful stadium but not ideal for soccer since there is a huge track around it. It was a lot of fun anyway. (I did not have a "rooting" interest for either team. I would say about 1/3 of the crowd was for Madrid.) A new ground is always good news but I wonder about mass transport to it. At least the Olympic Stadium is pretty accessible. Also, Espanyol looks like it's going to get relegated - can they afford a new stadium?
I think the whole thing will cost about 50 million US, including a shopping centre tagged onto it. Access by road should be okay as a whole mess of ring roads go by. The stadium they were allowed to tear down and draw a huge sum for the land (housing) was Sarrià, which was more intense than Montjuïc. I think many Italians remember it as where they beat Brazil on the way to the 84 World Cup, were sad to see it go. Unfortunately no team in Barcelona is strong enough to rise high enough to justify playing in Montjuïc, it is going to sit very empty. My neighbourhood team, Poble Sec, plays literally in sight of it on a dirt field, last year the brother of Espanyol striker Tamudo played for us, remember seeing their dad at a game one morning thinking all he had to do was meander up the hill to watch his other kid in the afternoon. But being in relegation zone in 5th tier is not a good sign for Montjuïc's future use. Maybe they can convert it for use by immigrant Pakistanis to play cricket.
The Montjuic just isn't the ground for them. They need to be a place that is intimidating to the opposition. And where it isn't half-espanyolista half-someone else. A stadium for the blanquiazules (or however you want to spell it). By the way, what's the progress on that?
Espanyol start work on new stadium. New opening date to be in 2007. http://servihoo.com/channels/kinews/v3news_details.php?id=63474&CategoryID=48