History and description
In the early parts of the 20th century, Real Madrid
first played at Campo De O’Donnell, and then moved to the larger Campo de
Chamartín in 1924.
In 1943, Chamartin had already
become too small again, and club-president Santiago Bernabéu decided that
Madrid needed a new and modern 100,000-stadium.
This new stadium got built at
the same site of Campo de Chamartín. Construction began in 1945, and on the
14th of December 1947 Estadio Santiago Bernabéu officially opened with a match
against Portuguese champions OS Belenenses (3-1).
The stadium was initially
still called Nuevo Estadio Chamartin, but received the name of the
club-president eight years later.
At that time, Estadio Santiago
Bernabéu consisted of two uncovered tiers that could hold just over 75,000
spectators. Capacity was further increased to 125,000 in 1954, when one of the
long sides got expanded with a third tier.
The Bernabéu was together with Camp Nou playing venue of the Euro 1964
Championships, hosting one of the two semi-finals and the final between Spain
and the Soviet Union (2-1).
Towards the end of the 1970s,
the stadium had already started to age, and club officials started making plans
to build a new stadium in the north of the city.
However, with the perspective
of the 1982 World Cup it was instead decided to renovate the Bernabéu, which
included the construction of a roof over the three two-tiered stands and the
installation of seats in half of the stadium. As a result, capacity was reduced
to 90,800 places.
During the 1986 World Cup,
Estadio Santiago Bernabéu hosted three matches in the second group stage and
the final between Italy and West Germany (3-1).
In the 1990s, UEFA required
the stadium to become an all-seater, which would have reduced capacity to
50,000 seats. Club president Mendoza therefore started an extensive redevelopment
program that included extending the third tier over the entire stadium, the
creation of corporate facilities, and four access towers in each corner of the
stadium. Works started in 1992 and were completed two years later.
Estadio Santiago Bernabéu got
further refurbished an upgraded between 2001 and 2006. Works most of all
focused on improving corporate facilities, and were concluded in 2006 with the
construction of a roof over the one remaining uncovered stand.
In its history, Estadio
Santiago Bernabéu has hosted four European Cup and Champions
League finals. The first final was in 1957 between Real Madrid and Fiorentina
(2-0), the second in 1969 between AC Milan and Ajax (4-1), the third in 1980
between Nottingham Forest and Hamburg (1-0), and the last one in 2010 between
Internazionale and Bayern Munich (2-0).
Real Madrid recently presented
plans to further upgrade the stadium with commercial and corporate facilities,
and to increase capacity to over 90,000 seats. Four architects have been asked
to present designs, of which the final one will be chosen later in 2013. The
club hopes to conclude the works in 2015 or 2016.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.