Real Madrid FC is pressing ahead with plans for a full redevelopment of the iconic Santiago Bernabeu stadium, complete with a skin of LEDs around the stadium, museum and nearby theme park development.

Expected to take six years to complete, Real Madrid’s home stadium, redesigned by architectural firm GMP-Architekten, will be wrapped in LEDs – which will effectively operate as a huge TV screen to air the club’s greatest moments in history – while the US$500m (€400m, £314m) redevelopment will include a vast retail area, restaurants, a hotel and a museum dedicated to the club.

Half of the overall cost for the redevelopment is likely to be met via the sale of naming rights and half via a bond issue to Real members, according to Spanish media reports.



Plans for a Real Madrid theme park – separate of the stadium redevelopment – were first touted in May when club president Florentino Perez confirmed confidential meetings with an “American company” to scope out plans for the project.

The club will build the attraction on a 90 hectare (222 acres) site in Valdebebas – an urban development in Madrid which will have homes for 40,000. The site is adjacent to Real’s training facility.

Real Madrid previously had plans for a US$1bn (£632m, €756m) theme park complex to be built in Ras al-Khaimah in the UAE, but those plans fell through earlier in the year when Madrid accused the project’s organisers of defaulting on payments.

While those plans have seemingly been put to one side, Perez did confirm the club is still looking at projects in the UAE, with plans for another theme park to be built in Abu Dhabi.