50.000 people can sit on this magnificent stadium build in 2003 and enjoy the beautiful game all at the same time. Corona free time, one day, someday, again, hopefully soon. Few years ago when I had a chance to visit this fantastic city of Porto in Portugal, I had one day free to roam around the city and one of the option was to visit the stadium, to take a tour. But then I’ve discovered something else in Porto called Pastéis de Nata, and after that all my plans for that day went bust. What can I say, in the end, I did not visit the stadium that time but I will not miss it the next time, that’s for sure. What is interesting that stadium opened back in 2003 witch a match with, guess who??? Well FC Barcelona. It’s like it has some kind of higher meaning. Maybe it has, when you see the grade bellow and final FICAZ INDEX value for this beauty of a stadium, FC Porto, Estádio do Dragão, maybe it has after all.
Check out the grades and final FICAZ INDEX score bellow.
Camera Angle and Center Zoom
Look at that photo above and bellow. What you can see ? Well, I see Porto in every pixel of those screenshots. I see one of the most interesting city I’ve ever visited. I see Espetada, I see Porto wine (even am not a wine drinker): except this wine, I see Cais da Ribeira riverside promenade, and more and more I could go like this forever. I had all the tools in the box to have enjoyable time in Porto. 
The same way Mr. “Geordi La Forge” have a tool (main broadcasting camera) to make a football game from this stadium enjoyable as well, even we are not actually in Porto 😭 but inside our homes in front of our oversized screens. And “Geordi” has been doing a fantastic job. It is not a coincidence that on this first both criteria’s we graded 100% for Estádio do Dragão, which means 60 points total. Don’t change anything Mr “La Forge” for the love of God. So far, “Geordi” has boldly gone where no one has gone before.
Calculation:
Camera angle score for FC Porto – Estádio do Dragão = 50 points
Center Zoom score for FC Porto – Estádio do Dragão = 10 points
Zoom top (far side)
It could be better here, but it still shows all 20 players in the frame and it still gets maximum 8 points for this criteria. So no complaining here for handling of the camera by “Geordi”. Make it so.
Calculation:
Camera Zoom FAR side for FC Porto – Estádio do Dragão = 8 points
Zoom bottom (near side)
Just, by a fraction, in this criteria we graded it almost perfect but it gets 7 of 8. Still fantastic feeling watching a game here even in this part of the pitch where most of the stadium has been failing short and some of them are incompetently bad as Bayern Munich.
Calculation:
Camera Zoom NEAR side for FC Porto – Estádio do Dragão = 7 points
Zoom Corners
“Geordi” should here zoom-out just a little on the both corners so we can see all the players outside the box and a little greens outside the box and then he would have a perfect score, here too. For now 7 of 8, for which again, I would not complaining much.
Calculation:
Camera Zoom CORNER for FC Porto – Estádio do Dragão = 7 points
Extra points
I’ve noticed that in Portugal on lots of stadium use SkyCam more than usual elsewhere . And they use it in live action sometimes. I would like them to use it more, especially for free kicks and penalties, but for now, it is well deserved 1 point. They also use AR gizmos like distance measurements from free kick to goal and similar stuff.
Overall enjoyment watching football from Porto is thought the roof, so HREN BONUS is graded also as maximum of 4 points. It has again been proven, same as for FC Barcelona FICAZ INDEX score, 💯% correlation between enjoyment level watching a game from that particular stadium and FICAZ INDEX score for the same one 👌🏻
Calculation:
Extra points (max. 16 points) = 5 points
Points summary
| Criteria | Points | Max. |
| Camera Angle | 50 | 50 |
| Zoom Center | 10 | 10 |
| Zoom Far – Top | 8 | 8 |
| Zoom Near – Bottom | 7 | 8 |
| Corner | 7 | 8 |
| Extra | 5 | 16 |
| FICAZ Index | 87 | 100 |
FC Porto – Estádio do Dragão – FICAZ INDEX = 87
Tell us in the comments what you think. Thanks for taking the time to contribute. Let’s enjoy in every fracking football game around the planet like it is Barca game, every game.
Mario Hren
Links and contacts for this FICAZ Index:
It would be hard to get better TV experience than this by complaining for anything here. PLEASE DO NOT COMPLAIN. It it an awesome TV experience from this FC Porto – Estádio do Dragão stadium. ENJOY in every game.
