RCDE Stadium

In 2003, RCD Espanyol ran an international competition for a new stadium, headquarters and surrounding buildings, with Reid Fenwick Asociados (Mark Fenwick and Javier Iribarren) and Gasulla Arquitectura i Gestió (Esteve Gasulla) beating finalists including Jean Nouvel, HOK and Arquitectónica. The brief asked for a stadium seating around 37,776-40,000, close enough to the pitch to feel like an English ground, so both fans and players would feel the connection more directly than at Espanyol's old home.

The winning design consists of two distinct elements: the bowl itself, made of tiered floors with sharp, crystalline lines, and an outer ring wrapping the whole structure in what the architects describe as a "floating and translucent curtain," clad in u-glass panels in white, blue and transparent tones that filter natural light inward and illuminate at night in the club's colours.

Construction ran from late 2006 to 2009, at a total project cost of approximately €83 million, funded through land sales, bank loans and public-private partnerships with regional and municipal authorities. RCD Espanyol purchased the site itself, on the border of Cornellà de Llobregat and El Prat de Llobregat, for €360,000 back in 2002, an unconventional industrial location at the time that raised doubts among fans but has since proven valuable given its proximity to Barcelona's airport.

Contractors FCC and Copisa handled the build. Piling began in January 2007 and the foundations were complete by September 2007, with the full reinforced-concrete structure finished by March 2008, faster groundwork than either Camp Nou or Santiago Bernabéu required, since RCDE Stadium rose from open ground rather than being rebuilt around a stadium still in use. The project still slipped past its original mid-2008 target, partly after cyclone Klaus damaged the main stand's roofing in January 2009, just months before the scheduled opening.

The stadium was never a standalone building: the competition brief and subsequent construction covered a 200,000 square metre masterplan around it, including club offices, a 10-hectare green area, urbanised streets and entrances, and a shopping centre, of which the 36,000 square metre stadium bowl is only one part. Espanyol's training complex on the same wider campus was later renamed Ciudad Deportiva Dani Jarque, in memory of the captain who died shortly after the stadium opened.

The steep, close-to-the-pitch bowl was designed to feel like an English ground, and it shows on matchday: the noise carries, and the Derbi Barceloní against FC Barcelona remains one of Catalan football's most intense local rivalries, pitting Espanyol's working-class identity against Barcelona's global brand. A dedicated entrance and memorial space inside the stadium honours Dani Jarque, the club's captain who died suddenly shortly after the ground opened in 2009, a loss still marked by supporters before matches.

The stadium's reputation took a hit in March 2026, when a Spain-Egypt World Cup warm-up friendly at the ground drew international criticism after discriminatory chants from parts of the crowd prompted a FIFA disciplinary investigation into the Spanish federation. Spain manager Luis de la Fuente publicly condemned the behaviour, and both the RFEF and Catalan police opened their own reviews; the episode briefly raised questions about the venue's readiness heading into 2030, though it has not affected its confirmed World Cup status.

At 40,500 seats, RCDE Stadium sits toward the smaller end of Spain's 2030 venues, right at FIFA's minimum size threshold for World Cup matches, making it a likely host for group-stage matches rather than marquee knockout fixtures, though FIFA has not published a confirmed match schedule by venue. A March 2026 FIFA technical delegation visit, alongside representatives from Cornellà, El Prat and Barcelona city councils, marked a further step in the formal evaluation process.

The stadium's selection wasn't without controversy: leaked audio from a 2024 RFEF venue-scoring committee meeting raised questions about how transparently Spain's eleven World Cup stadiums, RCDE Stadium among them, were originally ranked, prompting the resignation of the bid's director and public criticism from several city mayors. RCDE Stadium's 40,500 seats are modest next to Morocco's 115,000-seat Hassan II Stadium, a reminder of how differently FIFA weighed size against sustainability and access across the 21 host venues.