Real confirm $540m Bernabeu revamp

Real Madrid presented its redesign of the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Friday, a reported $540m renovation it expects will transform its home ground into a world icon.

German company GMT Architects, which has also designed the Arena Amazonia World Cup stadium in Manaus, Brazil, will lead the redesign which will see the stadium receive a new exterior with a hotel and shopping center added.

Madrid, which has debts of over $675m, plans to finance the project by selling naming rights to the stadium and through a bond issue among Madrid members.

“We want the new stadium to be a world icon,” President Florentino Perez said.

The Bernabeu, which was inaugurated in 1947, was last reworked for the 1982 World Cup.