Real Madrid yesterday closed a millionaire agreement with Legends, an American event and sports company, to operate the Santiago Bernabeu. According to VozPópuli, the contract will be in force for the next 25 years, in which the American company would take 20% of the profits of the company in which the Bernabéu would be segregated as long as it fulfills the promise of income to Real Madrid.
This newspaper points out that the American company has promised a global revenue figure of between 400 and 440 million euros per year through the marketing of the Bernabéu. This figure is far from the 150 million euros that, according to the club’s latest accounts, Real Madrid had been earning each year for the events held before the pandemic. To get a figure like the one promised, Legends would obtain revenues worth a minimum of 10,000 million euros during the 25 years in which the contract will be in force.
This association with Legends allows Real Madrid to compete with great British or French teams on a financial level, facilitating the requested financing and even putting itself at the level of giants on a financial level such as the Manchester City y PSG, in the hands of great fortunes of Arab origin.
In this way, if you add the great work that the Santiago Bernabéu is undergoing and the contract that the white club has just signed, Real Madrid will be able to become part of the so-called state-clubs. This new stadium will be the peak of the aspirations of Florentino Pérez’s mandate and the implementation of a future strategy that maintains the entity’s economic and sporting status for decades to come.
Designed by the group of architects GMP/L35/RIBAS and with a budget of 575 million euros, the Santiago Bernabéu construction project is an aesthetic remodeling but also a business opportunity: any part of the stadium will be able to be monetized and this is how it is being seen with the first major contract that the club has signed with Legends this very Thursday.
Thus, it will have a retractable cover, which will allow images to be projected, new leisure offers and restaurant services with top-level chefs, a museum -currently home to the second most visited in the capital, only behind the Prado Museum- and a Tour of the Bernabéu, a 360 degree video scoreboard, spaces enabled for the organization of events and e-sports or commercial establishments that will be structured through a large commercial space. In this way, the work also involves 66,000 square meters of the stadium environment.
Additionally, the retractable system will divide the playing field into six trays that will be stored under the side of the west stand in a pit that will have ventilation, irrigation and artificial light. It is precisely this part of the work, one of the ones that has caused the most problems due to the proximity of the subway tunnels that pass under the stadium.
This quality, however, will allow the stadium to gain in versatility. Thus, the future Santiago Bernabéu will be able to host all kinds of events, from sports tournaments to international concerts, “making it the best stadium in the world”, as the football team has pointed out in its promotional videos.
The works, which are expected to be completed in early 2023 and are being carried out by FCC, they will cost between 800 and 900 million euros, more than initially expected, an amount that the white club have no doubt that they will amortize quickly, since they calculate that the stadium will be in operation for a minimum of 300 days year.
Real Madrid got financing for the works for the remodeling of the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium for an amount of 575 million euros. This first loan was signed for a term of 30 years and a fixed interest rate of 2.5%. Additionally, months later, the white club was forced to request an extension of the financing for 225 million euros more. In this case, the money was provided by J.P. Morgan y Bank of America through a loan payable over a period of 27 years and with a fixed interest rate of 1.53%. This part of the financing included a lack of amortization of the principal, which will allow it not to be repaid until July 30, 2024.
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