New-look Santiago Bernabéu opening in December

Article posted by Coliseum, August 4^th, 2023

Image: Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Fernando Pascullo, CC BY-SA 4.0

The LaLiga club Real Madrid CF finally have a specific date in mind for the full opening of their renovated home – the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, Spain. It is December 23^rd, 2023.

‘Football ESPANA’ stated that the ‘Los Blancos’ played during much of the pandemic at their Valdebebas training ground stadium – the 6,000-capacity Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium in Madrid, Spain. They have since returned to the Bernabéu, where they have been playing for some time with the stadium still undergoing rejig work – large tarpaulins have been placed over sections of the stands in order to obscure the building work.

The Real Madrid CF is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. The club competes in LaLiga, the top tier of the Spanish football league. Founded in 1902 as the Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally worn a white home kit since its inception.

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The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium is a football stadium in Madrid, Spain. With a current seating capacity of 83,168, it is the second-largest seating capacity stadium in Spain, and it has been the home venue of Real Madrid since its completion in 1947.

The Santiago Bernabéu Stadium has entered the final lap of its extensive renovation work. In May 2019, Real awarded the Spanish building and infrastructure company FCC Construcción the contract to handle the facelifting of the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. At the time, Real said the timeframe required to refurbish the Bernabéu was 39 months, meaning it would be over by August 2022, plus an extra four months would be required to spruce up the stadium’s exterior. But the whole exercise got delayed due to the global outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020.

‘Football ESPANA’ further stated that meanwhile, some fans at the top of the stadium have been watching matches sans the roof. However, sources say that some of the supporters clubs have been informed of the set date of Bernabéu renovation work completion. This date has been delayed on several occasions, and originally it was thought the Bernabéu would be ready last December, but the new date is December 23^rd, 2023.

The above translates to the fact that the Bernabéu would host 11 more games in its altered state before then, ahead of the grand opening. The first game at the new-look Bernabéu would be the Real Madrid game against their peer team Real Mallorca, currently scheduled for January 3^rd.

The spruced-up Bernabéu will be able to host several big games in the LaLiga next season, with their home games against their peer teams – the Athletic Club, Sevilla FC, Atlético de Madrid, and FC Barcelona – all coming in the second half of the season.

Work on renovating the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium began in July of 2019, and if the current date of December 23^rd is confirmed, then it will have taken three-and-a-half years to finish the redecoration work. Real Madrid predicts that a redeveloped Bernabéu will help to keep their coffers jingling.

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