To many, Real Madrid’s iconic home ground has always been, simply, the Bernabeu.
Now, the Spanish giants have embraced that in a rebrand designed to boost their already world-leading revenues of over €1billion (£870million; $1.2bn) a year.
Madrid’s recently completed €1.8bn remodelling of the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu was a long-held ambition for club president Florentino Perez.
The aim was not only to grow matchday revenue but also to create a venue that would generate income 365 days a year. New features, including a roof and a retractable pitch, were designed to hold a wide range of non-football activities, from concerts to corporate events.
Last year, pop star Taylor Swift was among the first artists to perform there, while an NFL match between the Miami Dolphins and Washington Commanders is scheduled for November 16.
Madrid are making more moves to maximise the commercial potential of their home stadium, following a plan recently approved after a presentation given to president Perez.
Madrid’s general manager, Jose Angel Sanchez, has held meetings with the club staff leading the project, including chief executive Alex Wicks and director of marketing Nacho Perez, nephew of Florentino. Design Bridge and Partners, a constituent company of global giant WPP, has provided advice on branding and communications.
As part of this, a new logo and branding based on the stadium, which is referred to simply as ‘Bernabeu’, has been launched. This follows the 2021 establishment of a company (Real Madrid Estadio SL) to deal with the venue’s business side.
While only the club’s members, or ‘socios’, can change the stadium’s official name (Santiago Bernabeu was the legendary Madrid president in charge from 1943-1978), Madrid’s social media accounts also now refer to the ground in the new simplified way.
Separating the management of the stadium’s business activities from its football fixtures is intended to showcase the Bernabeu as a desirable destination for everyone, not just for traditional fans to see Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham play there every fortnight.
That is the plan. But as we will see, there have also been a few bumps in the road.
Perez’s desire to remodel the Bernabeu dates back to a 2004 promise he made to spend €30million on a roof to keep all fans dry during home games. Over time, other elements were added, including a new commercial space, extra VIP and hospitality facilities, and new cladding for its exterior.
The project has taken more than two decades to come to fruition, with planning and finance issues causing delays and amendments.
“We want to make the Santiago Bernabeu the best stadium in the world,” Perez said at Madrid’s annual general meeting in September 2018.
The scene at a Karol G concert at the Bernabeu in July 2024 (Ricardo Rubio/Europa Press via Getty Images)
“We want a 21st-century stadium where members and fans will have unforgettable experiences, incorporating the newest technology. A unique stadium in an unbeatable location, in the heart of the city. An iconic, avant-garde venue that allows us to increase the club’s income.”
Along the way, the idea of selling naming rights to the ground was considered. A €400m deal with the International Petroleum Investment Company signed in 2014 fell apart a few years later when the Abu Dhabi-based oil firm hit serious financial problems. Madrid attempted to recoup the money through a court action in France but failed.
The Spanish club ultimately decided to pursue other ways of making money from the stadium — and repaying its huge construction costs.
In May 2022, U.S. investor Sixth Street provided €360m in funding for the rebuild. They agreed a 20-year partnership with Madrid, run through a joint venture containing all of the club’s in-stadium income, except season ticket sales.
Stadium-management specialist Legends — in which Sixth Street is the majority shareholder — also partnered with Madrid to run the club’s retail operations and all of the Bernabeu’s restaurants and bars.
The new-look Bernabeu’s dining experiences include the refurbished long-serving Puerta 57 restaurant as well as the new Arzabal Bernabeu (a restaurant with three other locations in Madrid) and the Ko by 99 sushi bar. The stadium also has a Plaza Mahou ‘beer factory’ that brews 30,000 litres of beer annually, and a swanky Starbucks with table service.
Starbucks pays a set fee to rent the space inside the stadium, with sofas overlooking the stadium’s south goal, and then a certain amount on top based on business. Madrid get a cut of every cup of coffee sold, while Legends also takes a fee.
The view from Starbucks at the Santiago Bernabeu (A Perez Meca/Europa Press via Getty Images)
The new Bernabeu has eight spaces available for private parties or corporate events. Events for up to 5,000 people can be held on the pitch, with the playing surface rolled away, as it is for concerts. Tables and chairs can be laid out and a temporary podium for speeches and presentations installed.
Businesses or individuals can also hire the executive box, where new signings such as Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo have been presented during Perez’s presidency, or the press conference room and mixed zone where media work on matchdays.
BMW, Spanish ceramics giant Porcelanosa and American-Swiss insurance provider Chubb are among the companies to have rented facilities. The biggest events can net the club up to €500,000 in a day. The UN-organised World Sports Tourism Congress will be held at the Bernabeu in late November.
The revenue from non-matchday activities was among the reasons Madrid reported a record €1.185bn in revenues in 2024-25, the most of any football club ever. Matchday income has more than doubled over the last three years. Revenues for 2025-26 are expected to jump significantly again, helped by more of the stadium’s new amenities.
Madrid’s club museum was one of the city’s most visited tourist attractions even before the renovation. Sources familiar with its operation — who, like all those cited here, spoke anonymously as they did not have permission to comment publicly — said the new Bernabeu Tour experience is attracting more than 1.6million visitors a year, and an estimated 2.5m people visit the club’s retail and food and drink outlets annually. A stadium skywalk with views of the Spanish capital is due to open in late 2025 or early 2026.
There have been challenges in introducing modern business practices. Historically, the football team has been the only priority, and Perez had kept tight control over decision-making across all areas.
Trying to turn the Bernabeu into Madrid’s No 1 concert venue has thrown up high-profile problems.
After 11 gigs in the summer of 2024, including Taylor Swift and Colombian pop star Karol G, neighbouring residents complained about noise and other issues.
Madrid town hall fined the concert promoters for breaking the legally permissible noise levels. Club executives, including Sanchez, were then called to give evidence in a judicial enquiry. In September 2024, all further concerts were postponed. The Bernabeu has not hosted a concert since.
The club have invested a further €10milllion in soundproofing and other work to minimise problems for residents. There is confidence at the club that they will not face criminal charges and hope that concerts can restart in 2026.
The next big non-football event at the Bernabeu sees the Miami Dolphins and Washington Commanders come to town. That American football game requires the stadium to be significantly adapted, along with all the marketing and promotion around such a huge event.
Brett Gosper, the NFL’s head of Europe and Asia-Pacific, has suggested American football will return to the Bernabeu, while Madrid have held discussions around hosting NBA and other sports, including UFC.
Work is underway to triple the size of the metro station serving the stadium to 12,400 square metres, and link it to the line that continues to Madrid’s Barajas airport. That is scheduled to be completed by autumn 2027. The station is also expected to be rebranded by the city’s transport authorities to just ‘Bernabeu’, with ‘Santiago’ dropped from its current name.
The reorganisation of Real Madrid’s stadium business may also form part of a wider strategy from Perez for the club’s future. He has hinted at recent annual assemblies about potential changes to its ownership model — Madrid has always been owned by its 100,000 socios — which would allow outside investors to take shares in the club.
All that has still to be worked out internally, but the new Bernabeu is already open for all kinds of business.
Additional reporting: Mario Cortegana and Guillermo Rai
(Top photo: Denis Doyle/Getty Images)