Walking around the Santiago Bernabéu is like walking through a tense calm. Not to feel the emotions before a football match, as historically, but to perceive the tranquility after the storm caused by the neighborhood conflict with Real Madrid and the capital’s City Hall. First there was the cancellation by the club chaired by Florentino Pérez of certain concerts which far exceeded the authorized sound levels. Barely two weeks later, the Contentious-Administrative Court number 30 of Madrid ordered a halt to construction work in the parking lots adjacent to the sports complex.
Two setbacks in Real Madrid’s plans compromise the entity’s accounts. The merengue group has reached an agreement with the investment group Sixth Street and the American entertainment conglomerate Legends Hospitality through which would have received 360 million euros. In exchange, Real Madrid promised to give up 30% of the profits from concerts and other events organized by the Santiago Bernabéu.as reported by Financial Times.
Once the transaction is formalized, a new company would be created to manage the profits from the stadium, and in this way, the income from events and concerts at the Santiago Bernabéu would be divided 70% for Real Madrid and 30% for Sixth Street. The agreement has a planned duration of twenty years. But the paralysis of events, whose continuity is now called into question, leaves in suspense both the evolution of the agreement and the way in which Real Madrid will return the initial external investment.
The club also hoped to run a lucrative business with the underground car parks next to the stadium. The work includes the opening of two car parks that can accommodate more than 2,000 vehicles. The largest of them is located next to Paseo de la Castellana and the second would pass under Padre Damián Street, where a tunnel was also planned that would absorb most of the traffic generated by the infrastructure.
Both infrastructures are being built thanks to a competition that the Town Hall convened at the request of Real Madrid and in which only the entity chaired by Florentino Pérez participated. The concession includes the operation of the infrastructure for the next 40 years, as well as the use of 20,000 square meters of adjacent public space for the organization of events.
According to the agreement between the City Council of José Luis Martínez-Almeida and the white club, it will manage a company estimated at 470 million turnover over the next 40 years through the recently created company Aparcamientos del Santiago Bernabéu SL (which has as director and representative the director of the Bernabéu José Ángel Sánchez “JAS” and as president Santiago López-Vilas, the latest commercial signing of Florentino Pérez). The operating period could even be extended to 46 years in the event that it would be necessary to “restore the economic balance of the contract in the circumstances provided for,” according to the document.
A project thwarted by a large and powerful neighborhood community
Two neighborhood associations denounced this concession in court, which was annulled by the courts in May, although the stop order was postponed for four months. The same neighborhood groups monitored and denounced the concert situation (with the invaluable help of the viral account @RuidoBernabeu), forcing Real Madrid to paralyze them at least until April. By this date, it is expected that it will have reduced its emissions, despite the doubts that this arouses among various experts, even if the sports entity makes a new investment of one million dollars.
The issue of concerts also reached the courts in the context of criminal complaints against “JAS”, Almeida and the delegate for Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility, Borja Carabante. They are based on exceeding permitted noise levelssince in some cases they reached 85 decibels with a legal limit lower than 60. But also in the use of an extraordinary license (granted by the Community of Madrid whose government is chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso) to host musical events in a place of sports use, even when the frequency of concerts (by Taylor Swit, Karol G or Duki) had already exceeded that of matches.
Thus, the situation of Real Madrid is the result of the legal, social and media battle of the Association of the Wounded of the Bernabéu and the Neighborhood Initiative Association for the Defense of the Environment and against the Paseo de la Habana tunnel -Padre Damian. Between them, they have more than 2,000 members, a social mass that gradually returns Chamartín to normal, even if they know that their victories are only momentary.
The new normal at the Bernabéu: more tranquility than silence
“I can finally sleep at night,” says street neighbor Rafael Salgado who speaks with Somos Madrid a few meters from the Bernabéu. José Manuel Paredes, president of the Association of the Wounded, previously told this newspaper that one of the main reasons he got involved in the struggle was his son’s situation: “Many mornings he woke up without sleeping and he had to go to an exam like that.”
Regina spoke to this media recently as vice-president of one of the neighborhood communities that received handwritten letters from neighboring members of the Popular Party of Chamartín, asking them to meet privately (and without involvement of the associations) the district president advisor. , Yolanda Estrada. The resident takes the opportunity to extend her dissatisfaction with the concerts beyond the noise: “The public is very different from that of football. They stay around long after the events are over and we have to endure fights, littering, urination at our door and a lot of commotion. He protested against Florentino Pérez’s interest in creating “a theme park, a Disneyland Madrid, next to our homes.”
“Florentino Pérez’s failure came because he believes that the city belongs to him and that he can do what he wants. If you slap the mayor, you also think that you can bleed his town hall and his neighbors without consequences”, says Luis, passionate owner of a house near the Bernabéu, who has access problems due to works and concerts .. they were “martyred”. He considers that “neither Almeida nor Madrid expected such a strong, consensual and precise response from people who, beyond their disparate origins and circumstances, are accustomed to it. to win.”
Florentino Pérez’s failure is due to the fact that he believes that the city belongs to him and that he can do whatever he wants. If you slap the mayor, you also think that you can bleed his Town Hall and his neighbors without consequences.
Even though he knows it’s temporary for the moment, Luis appreciates the tranquility the neighborhood now knows, even if it is more symbolic than real. Not only because several fighter jets are flying overhead in preparation for the performance on October 12, but also because work continues on the renovation of the stadium itself and the expansion of the Santiago Bernabéu metro station.
In fact, when Somos Madrid goes on site, a large part of the machines used to work in the car parks still remain outside. There are also holes in the ground and some workers are carrying out various tasks. The reason is that the ten-day period granted by the City Hall to Real Madrid to condition the area before dismantling the works is still in force.
Elena, a neighbor who has her “first home” in Chamartín, is “a little more relieved” that some of the incidents caused by the work will not happen again. Even if the gas leak which forced the interruption of traffic and metro line 10 in May seems rather linked to the work on the stadium itself, work on the parking lots caused landslides and unforeseen sinkholes in September. As a result, water leaks occurred and flooded several floors of the underground parking lot.
Of course, tranquility crosses neighborhoods, and in some it generates more worry than security. The majority of hoteliers and owners in the surrounding area prefer not to answer the questions asked. Those who admit that “concerts help business because they attract a lot of people”, while parking works “hardly affect customers, even if only for those of us who work because you have to come with more time to park.”
Losses which, in any case, will be insignificant compared to those which Real Madrid will have to face if the stoppages of parking works and concerts continue over time. “I hope it bothers them, sorry, as little as possible. Because I’m very merengón,” says Luis. “But above all, I am a person who wants to live in peace and who wants things to happen as they should,” he says.
