Barça and Athletic both want the final at the BernabéuReal Madrid have not requested to stage the Copa del Rey final – but Mestalla and San Mamés are among the candidates. The identities of the 2015 Copa del Rey final are now known and as Spain doesn not boast a national stadium as such, the debate has started up about where the 30 May final will be held, although initial indications suggest that it will be the Santiago Bernabéu. The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) will make their final decision next week after meeting with representatives from FC Barcelona and Athletic Club – two clubs who will contest their eighth domestic Cup final, and with five possible venues to choose from: the Bernabéu, Camp Nou, new San Mamés, Mestalla and La Cartuja. All of the potential venues have a capacity in excess of 50,000 – the only prerequisite set by the RFEF. Concerts by AC/DC rule out two other options – the band is due to play in Montjuïc on 29 May and at the Calderón two days later.
As it stands, the RFEF has only received two formal requests to hold the final: one from Valencia who have offered the use of Mestalla and another from the Bilbao local council, who have proposed staging the event at new San Mamés. However, the second option is practically discarded because the final has to take place on neutral ground and also because the stadium is owned by the consortium, San Mamés Barria partnership which includes the local council, the Basque regional government, Bilbao Bizkaia Kutxa bank and Athletic. There been no word from Bilbao about playing the final on home ground in San Mamés and nor is there likely to be – the club is currently immersed in an electoral campaign and without a president; that situation is unlikely to change until, at the very earliest, 12 March. The Bernabéu is the clear favourite to hold the final despite not having submitted a request to do so to the RFEF. In 2012, Madrid turned down an offer to stage the final between the same two clubs, arguing that it would interfere with construction work that was due to take place on their stadium. This time, the Federation hopes they will accept.
Both Barça and Athletic have stated that they are open to the idea of hosting the final at the Bernabéu, as they did for the 1984 final. Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu said: “We’ll see what the Federation have to say but we are always in favour of the option which offers the largest capacity; and we don’t like the idea of the final being at Camp Nou because no one likes to play these kind of games at their own stadium – or even in their own city. One of the attractions of the Cup final is that fans have to travel to other cities, as long as it is not too far for them”. Athletic are also open to staging the final in the capital; Ernesto Valverde telling reporters in the post-match press conference that the Bernabéu option is appealing while Mestalla may not be an ample enough to accomodate both sets of fans.
http://as.com/diarioas/2015/03/05/english/1425515094_960457.html