Work is still ongoing at the Bernabéu: when will Real Madrid’s stadium be finished?

“Every second counts”, is the iconic phrase from The Bear, the series that you have probably heard about over the past few days. It is a motto that summarises perfectly the mentality of Real Madrid (who play against Girona on Saturday 30) as regards the renovation at the Bernabéu. The club are making the most of every week without football: every break, every minute, every second. Given that until next Saturday there will be no football at the Bernabéu, the time off comes as gold for the builders, who now have seven days in which they want to speed up the change of seats... but it is by no means the only thing.

It is also an opportunity to climb up a gear with the video scoreboard, which has already moved into the advanced stages over the last few days and weeks. The six sections that make up the pitch (each one weighs 1,500 kilos, in case you were wondering) have been removed from the hypogeum (30 meters below the surface) and are now resting under the feet of the pedestrians walking by. This makes a clear path on the surface for the heavy machinery required to speed up the work.

When will the new Santiago Bernabéu be finished?

The work is progressing well and the club have avoided setbacks (before summer, for example, a humidity problem was detected that has now been corrected) and they are moving into the final stages. However, the official date of the opening party remains unknown: the club’s great hope is still December 14, which would coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Bernabéu’s original opening in 1947.

But the matter still remains complicated. Taking into account that work on the commercial area and urbanisation outside the stadium has not yet begun, reaching December is a tough ask (even getting it done by the 23rd, another date that is on the table). If the disappointment of the unveiling is confirmed, the inauguration would probably jump to March 6 (Madrid’s 122nd anniversary). What is certain is that this season we will see it done and dusted, ready to go.

A new Metro station is also on the way

The Santiago Bernabéu metro station is one of the latest developments in the works... and it’s going to be massive. The Madrid council will be in charge of carrying out a huge renovation of the metro stop that gives access to the stadium, allocating €68 million to the project, adding 12 new elevators and 24 escalators to the underground complex.

The station will therefore go from the current 4,843 square meters up to a whopping 12,481. But the most revolutionary aspect of the redesign will be the decoration: it will be full-on Madridista bedroom style, with club crests, mottos, chants and photographs of players are all set to be included. Work is scheduled to begin in 2024, so it will be the last part of the project to be finished. It is, yet again, a helping hand from the council, who were already responsible for the name change in 1998: the stop, before ‘Santiago Bernabéu’, was known as ‘Lima’.

Alejandro Sanz and a “song”

Returning to the inauguration, while the date may still be up in the air, the musical performance is not. Florentino Pérez personally contacted Spanish musician Alejandro Sanz to commission a new song. The artist, a huge Madrid fan and a recently named honorary member, accepted the proposal without a second thought. And as AS understands, the composition of the song is also progressing nicely. It is not intended to be a new anthem, that is, to replace Hala Madrid y Nada Más, but rather to add to the musical list that the club uses for match days and other events.

The idea behind the song is for Sanz to sing it next to to the stadium on opening day. In the absence of a date, the renovation is progressing at a solid pace. Almost all the new seats are already installed and the video scoreboard is being finished. We’re almost ready!