Football packages Real Madrid

Santiago Bernabéu was opened in 1947 under the name Nuevo Estadio Chamartín. The spectator capacity was then 75,000. Any official attendance record is nowhere to be found, but one can assume that a fair amount more than 100,000 spectators have at some point seen a game at the stadium, since the capacity has been over 100,000 during several periods in history. Today the stadium has a capacity of 85,454 seated people.

Real Madrid hasn’t always played at Santiago Bernabéu. During the club’s first decades they initially played at Campo De O’Donnel, and later at Campo Chamartín. At the beginning of the 1940’s, however, the then president decided that a new stadium was to be built. The president wanted the new stadium to be able to welcome 100,000 spectators, but he eventually had to settle with a capacity of 75,000.

In 1944 they tore down the old Campo Chamartín and started the construction of Nuevo Estadio Chamartín. In December of 1947, it was finished.

In the 1950’s the capacity of the stadium was increased to 125,000 spectators, and at the same time they changed its name to honor president Bernabéu.

Of course, the stadium has undergone great changes during the years, and not least ahead of the football World Championships in 1982 and 1990. During the 1990’s, Santiago Bernabéu was converted to only offer seats.

Santiago Bernabéu takes up a whole block of central Madrid, but the city’s absolute center is still about four kilometers away. The stadium lies right next to Paseo de la Castellana, which is one of the main passageways in this capital. The stadium is relatively easy to reach by foot, but the best way to get here is to take the subway to the Santiago Bernabéu station (line 10).