It was one of the most important decisions in the history of the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona-1899. In 1948, the Board of Directors approved the search for a new headquarters. The entity, then located on Ganduxer Street, had received an ultimatum from the Bertrand family, owner of those lands occupied by the club for more than three decades. Barcelona was expanding at a rapid pace, and that area had become a high priority for real estate businesses. It was not surprising that the property informed the club that it would not renew the contract once the current lease expired, demanding its purchase at an exorbitant price.
Carlos Godó Valls, Count of Godó, president of the RCTB, gathered his Board of Directors. “In life everything is constant mutation. What has happened to us should never happen to us again. We have to find and buy a place for the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona,” he reflected. The board unanimously supported the decision of its president.
Months later, the board established, in addition to the economic criteria, the conditions that in its opinion the new club lands should meet: that they be owned, that they have a minimum capacity for 15 courts and a swimming pool, that they be well connected, and that The location was included between the triangle formed by Ganduxer streets, Avenida Generalísimo Franco (Diagonal) and Paseo de la Bonanova, with its continuations in Paseo de la Reina Elisenda and the Esplugas road.
Following these premises, the board got to work and began visiting land and farms in the city. Nothing suited his needs. Land was visited in Montjuïc, on Anglí Street, at the foot of Vallvidrera, in the so-called Sarrià Desert, on Avenida San Juan Bosco, at the top of Paseo Manuel Girona, and even in the area where it is currently the headquarters of FC Barcelona.
During its years in Ganduxer, RCT Barcelona had developed great synergy with the best entities in world tennis, with which it had a calendar of top-level interclub competitions. The future objective was to grow to continue being on the front line. Not just any piece of land was worth it. Just when they were considering how they could even approach the very expensive purchase of Ganduxer, the solution appeared.
It was the month of January 1950, and the board of directors, after a management by Luis de Olano, had before their eyes a portion of land from the so-called Casa Canet de la Riera, located in the municipality of Sarrià. In it there was a farm house, with origins in the 16th century, composed of a ground floor, an upper floor and a roof terrace, divided into two rooms, one for the owner and one for the settler, with two cellars, one on the ground floor and built on the outside, as well as other rooms of a workhouse.
The directors contemplated a total of 522,347 square palms of land destined for the cultivation of cereals, vineyards, carob trees and a barren part, along with an irrigated orchard and a flow of water from an existing well near the farmhouse. The land met the required conditions: proximity, extension and future.
On July 4, 1950, in an extraordinary Assembly, the partners approved an acquisition that required them to make a mandatory minimum contribution of 5,000 pesetas per person to acquire title to the entity. Negotiations with the Compañía Ibérica de Urbanizacións, and with Mercedes Llobatera Canet, owner of a mortgage that encumbered the property, culminated in a purchase contract on October 10, 1951.
While the Ganduxer social premises already had serious maintenance problems, which were being provisionally repaired, a Works Commission for the adaptation of Can Canet de la Riera was created, chaired by Carlos Godó, and in which Luis Coma-Cros, Santiago Marfá, Luis Augusto Viñamata, Ramón Rovira and Salvador Torrents played a fundamental role.
As the negotiations for the acquisition of the new headquarters progressed, on May 4, 1951, the Count of Godó gathered the board of directors. As reflected in the minutes of said meeting, the president “explains the need to adopt decisive guidelines regarding the sports plan to be followed, considering it essential to organize international meetings that serve as encouragement and training for our young values and raise the atmosphere of the club, although at the risk of producing a deficit, to address which a solution should be studied, even offering to address it personally if necessary, and ends by requesting the judgment of those gathered."
The creation of a major international competition is approved, for which Carlos Godó offers a trophy and a first name such as the President's Cup. The board considers that this is not the appropriate name after the enormous work of its highest dignitary. The Conde de Godó Trophy was born, but its launch was postponed until the spring of 1953, citing technical difficulties that were none other than the construction of the new entity. The competition was to be the starting point of the club's new stage.
On January 20, 1952, at 12:30 p.m., the Most Excellent and Most Reverend Bishop of the Diocese of Barcelona, Doctor Modrego Casaus, proceeded to the solemn blessing and laying of the first stone of the new headquarters. The architect Raimon Durán i Reinals was in charge of designing the remodeling of the Masía, Luis Coma-Cros of the supervision and correct application of the topographic plans and the negotiations with the contractors, Santiago Marfá of the sports needs of the facility and Salvador Torrents of the connection with the president and the Board of Directors.
At the end of 1952 the new club began to be seen. On February 6, 1953, 6,200 cypresses were purchased from the Prat del Llobregat City Council nursery, 6,000 of normal size and 200 of good height. On March 27, the Barcelona Electricity Company was asked to carry out the general installation of the new headquarters, and on April 16, after a request to the Barcelona City Council, the Urbanization and Ensanche Committee committed to affirming Cardenal Vives y Tutó Street, and to place the corresponding curbs, but not to the definitive urbanization due to lack of time.
During those months of whirlwind construction, with Pablo Bartrolí supervising the correct construction of the clay courts. Buenaventura Plaja and Miguel Lerín design the plan to attract good foreign players to compete in the tournament, a task in which Jaime Bartrolí, Marcel Gamper and Ramón Bosch collaborate. On June 3, 1953, with the social life of the entity still focused on Ganduxer, the first edition of the Conde de Godó Trophy began, the sports festival with which five years earlier the Board of Directors had decided to name its new facilities.
