Palau Blaugrana
Encyclopedia
Palau Blaugrana is an arena
Arena
An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...

 in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

, Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

 (Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

), belonging to FC Barcelona
FC Barcelona
Futbol Club Barcelona , also known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club, based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain....

 (FCB). The 7,585 seating capacity
Seating capacity
Seating capacity refers to the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, both in terms of the physical space available, and in terms of limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that seats two to a stadium that seats...

 arena is home to the basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, handball
Team handball
Handball is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each pass a ball to throw it into the goal of the other team...

, roller hockey
Roller hockey
Roller Hockey is a form of hockey played on a dry surface using skates with wheels. The term "Roller Hockey" is often used interchangeably to refer to two variant forms chiefly differentiated by the type of skate used. There is traditional "Roller Hockey," played with quad roller skates, and...

, and futsal
Futsal
Futsal is a variant of association football that is played on a smaller pitch and mainly played indoors. Its name is a portmanteau of the Portuguese futebol de salão and the Spanish fútbol de salón , which can be translated as "hall football" or "indoor football"...

 divisions of FC Barcelona
FC Barcelona
Futbol Club Barcelona , also known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club, based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain....

. Palau Blaugrana is located between Mini Estadi
Mini Estadi
Mini Estadi is a football stadium located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The 15,276 seat stadium is situated across from Camp Nou, the home stadium of FC Barcelona.The stadium was home to FC Barcelona C until July 2007, when they disbanded...

 and the Camp Nou
Camp Nou
Camp Nou , sometimes called "the Nou Camp" in English, is a football stadium in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The stadium, located in the west of the city, has been the home of FC Barcelona since its construction in 1957....

.

History

Built in 1971, the stadium originally held 5,696 spectators, but the facility was remodeled in 1994 to fit the current capacity of 7,585. During the 1992 Summer Olympics
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event celebrated in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, in 1992. The International Olympic Committee voted in 1986 to separate the Summer and Winter Games, which had been held in the same...

, the arena hosted several events, including roller hockey
Roller hockey at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Roller hockey was one of three demonstration sports included in the official Olympic programme of the 1992 Summer Olympics, held in Barcelona...

, taekwondo
Taekwondo at the 1992 Summer Olympics
Taekwondo was a demonstration sport at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. It was the second time that the sport was included in the Olympic program; it would become an official sport eight years later at the 2000 Games....

 and judo
Judo at the 1992 Summer Olympics
The Judo competition at the 1992 Summer Olympics was contested in fourteen weight classes, seven each for men and women. The seven men's weight classes continued to be those first used in 1980. This was the first Olympic competition to award medals to women judoka; women competed in 1988 as a...

.

Several basketball and handball players have had their jerseys retired:

4 Andrés Jiménez, 7 Nacho Solozábal and 15 Epi
Juan Antonio San Epifanio
Juan Antonio San Epifanio Ruiz is a retired Spanish basketball player, considered one of the greatest small forwards ever to play in Europe...

 for basketball and 2 Òscar Grau, 7 Iñaki Urdangarin, 14 Joan Sagalés, and 16 David Barrufet
David Barrufet
David Barrufet Bofill David Barrufet Bofill David Barrufet Bofill (born 4 June 1970 in Barcelona, Catalonia is a former catalan handball goalkeeper, currently playing for FC Barcelona Handbol....

 for handball.

The future

Under Sandro Rosell
Sandro Rosell
Alexandre Rosell i Feliu , commonly known as Sandro Rosell, is the current president of FC Barcelona. With an MBA degree from ESADE, Rosell is known for being the running mate and senior adviser of Joan Laporta during the presidential elections at FC Barcelona in 2003...

's presidency, the club announced that by 2013 it plans to build a new Palau Blaugrana for the basketball team, with a capacity of 12,000 seats. Also included in the plan, is a smaller campus with a capacity of 3,000 seats, plus [a special conditions] for hotel partners (operated by a specialist company located on the corner of Aristides Maillol with John XXIII), new parking spaces and an auditorium, with a 2,000 capacity, for the foundation, including the offices of the club.

See also

  • FC Barcelona
    FC Barcelona
    Futbol Club Barcelona , also known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club, based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain....

     (Main body and football club)
  • UB-Barça
    UB-Barça
    Universitat de Barcelona-FC Barcelona is a Catalan women’s basketball team. Initially belonging just to the Universitat de Barcelona, they're now part of the FC Barcelona family...

     (Women's basketball)
  • FC Barcelona-Cifec (handball)
  • FC Barcelona-Institut Guttman
    FC Barcelona-Institut Guttman
    FC Barcelona-Institut Guttmann is a Catalan wheelchair basketball team. It is part of both the FC Barcelona family and the Fundacio Institut Guttmann. The latter is a hospital in Catalonia that provides treatment and rehabilitation for people with spinal injury, brain damage, and other neurological...

     (wheelchair basketball
    Wheelchair basketball
    Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people in wheelchairs and is considered one of the major disabled sports practiced. The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation is the governing body for this sport. It is recognized by the International Paralympic Committee as the sole...

    )
  • Regal FC Barcelona
    FC Barcelona Bàsquet
    FC Barcelona Bàsquet, known as FC Barcelona Regal for sponsorship reasons, is a Spanish professional basketball club. It is part of the FC Barcelona sports club and was founded on August 24, 1926 which makes it the oldest club in Liga ACB. The club competes in the Asociación de Clubes de Baloncesto...

    (basketball)

External links

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