Real Madrid unveiled their newly renovated stadium last month and the Spanish giants now boast arguably the best stadium in the world. It’s something Manchester United could take notes on, if our leadership actually bothered to pay attention.
Since it’s inauguration in the end of 1947, the Santiago Bernabéu has had a few renovations — first an expansion in the mid-50s to increase capacity from 80,000 to 125,000; a makeover ahead of the 1982 World Cup hosted in Spain; upgrades to then comply with safety protocols put in place after the Heysel disaster in 1985. From the mid-90s, though, refurbishments never stopped and the stadium reduced it’s capacity in 1998 to convert terraces behind the goalposts into seated areas to become an all-seater arena. It’s been a long time coming, but the Bernabéu finally got the makeover befitting the European giants.
The Bernabéu’s Facelift: More than Skin Deep
In 2018, Real’s president Florentino Pérez announced plans to renovate the Bernabéu, with the goal being to modernise the stadium and keep it at the forefront of domestic and international football (and other major entertainment and sporting events). According to Pérez, “The new stadium will continue to be the setting that generates the emotions which will leave their mark on Real Madrid’s future. It’ll be the best stadium in the world in which to see us once again recognised at the end of the century as the best club of the 21st century. It’ll offer a new stadium, heritage and be a new source of pride for our members and fans.”
Pérez’s plans included a complete revamp, transforming it into a modern, state-of-the-art stadium that would increase revenue streams including an on-site casino (a rumour that’s since been disproven; it just wouldn’t be legal).
The remodelling began as soon as the 18/19 season ended, and construction was expected to finish in late 2022. We kind of know what happened next, though, with Covid-19 forcing football to come to a halt. On the plus side for Real, work on the stadium progressed rapidly: they demolished the Esquina del Bernabéu shopping centre and dismantled the stadium’s roof, completely gutted the seating areas in the bottom two tiers, and built new towers on the west side. The new stadium boasts a fully-retractable roof, and a pitch that can be disassembled for non-footballing events. The most noticeable feature is the stadium’s wrap-around exterior not unlike the Allianz Arena, which can be lit up and have images projected on to it. Honestly, take a look if you haven’t already, it’s a far cry from the traditional facade that we’ve come to expect of most traditional stadiums (like our own).
The redevelopment takes the Bernabéu into a new, digital era that gives fans a more customised match-day experience, but it’s also going to revamp the surrounding area with a large square to be built on the Paseo de la Castellana, and another, smaller one on the corner of Padre Damián, which will make calle Rafael Salgado a pedestrian-only area. The flow of foot-traffic will also be more fluid thanks to new escalators along the stadium’s highest points and, if you’ve climbed up to the nosebleeds at Old Trafford, you know what a godsend escalators can be.
The new Bernabéu also features an extension of the Bernabéu Tour with a new area that has panoramic views of the grounds; an eSports centre with the latest technology and equipment; a revamped megastore; and larger spaces to accommodate more visitors. They’re also expecting to host concerts and overseas NFL and NBA games at the new Bernabéu. In short, increased revenue streams expected to bring in about 1B euros per year.
Renovation plans for Old Trafford
So why is this relevant, this really poor attempt to wax poetic about the success of another European giant? Because this honestly should be been us. It could have been us if our owners cared, or realised that spending stadium improvements would increase revenue. That would probably continue to line the Glazers’ pockets, but at least we wouldn’t have a leaky roof.
Plans to renovate Old Trafford have been in the works for ages, but that’s just what they’ve been: plans. The only changes that United have made apparently came about after Ronaldo complained about Old Trafford’s substandard amenities — according to the tabloids, so take it with a grain of salt, but at least it’s something besides talk.
United announced that they hired a team of leading consultants to come up with a masterplan for the redevelopment, the same consultants who brought the Bernabéu into the 21st century.
United said that they aim to preserve the ‘identity and heritage of Old Trafford’ while upgrading the match-going experience, but this just sounds like more talk from leadership that have failed to deliver on practically anything that the fans have wanted. Things don’t look promising because United haven’t set a budget or timescale for this overhaul. Knowing the Glazers, there is no budget because it’s all going into their pockets; to make matters worse and given how long they’ve been dragging their feet, the renovations could cost the club over $1.5B and it would be much cheaper to build a new stadium from the ground up. First of all — NO. Secondly, even suggesting we move anywhere else would cement the Glazers as worst owners ever (except for maybe the Saudis at Newcastle; they’re human rights abusers but jury’s still out on how they are as football club-owners).
While we’re not sure just what’s on the cards, we know the focus is to modernise and maybe even expand stadium capacity. The north stand was expanded in 1995, increasing capacity to 55,000, before we increased capacity again to 67,000 by adding a second tier to the Stretford and Scoreboard Ends. Since then, our last expansion was back in 2006, since the north-east and -west quads were installed. The club confirmed these plans in 2004, a year before the Glazer family completed their takeover.
United said that a similar process is already in progress to revamp the club’s training facilities, to develop a masterplan for an expanded, modern facility for the men’s, women’s and academy teams. The club said that they’d keep the fans concerns as top priority of redeveloping the grounds, but we’ve been down this path before, time and time again. We’d be right not to believe anything they say until we see concrete action.
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