The NFL made 23 billion dollars last year, four times more than the League and the Premier League. Although many of you may not follow it, it is the competition with the highest revenues in the world. More than the NBA or MLB baseball (11,000). No one comes close. And the NFL, reigning as the millionaire throne of sports from the United States, wants to grow and expand. It has held games in five foreign countries (United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil, Germany, and Mexico) and now arrives in Spain, at the Santiago Bernabéu, where it will invest two million, a meager amount considering its pocket, to transform the Real Madrid coliseum into the great show of American sports.
This Sunday, the Miami Dolphins and the Washington Commanders will play one of the games of week 11 of the regular season. They use the term 'week' there, but let's stick to tradition. This season, the league has already had games in Sao Paulo, Dublin, London (two at Tottenham's stadium and one at Wembley) and Berlin, and the modus operandi of the North American organization is always the same: the NFL does not adapt to the environment, but rather turns the environment into its own home. That's what they will do with the Bernabéu.
The transformation will be total on the field, in the stands, where the Real Madrid shields will disappear, and inside. The grass of the white coliseum measures 105 meters long, while NFL fields go up to 109 (120 yards). 100 yards of 'play' and 10 at each end, where the touchdown zones are located. There, the organization has gained meters from the North and South Stands by removing rows of seats.
Modifications are also being made on the sides. Forget about the benches you usually see in soccer. In the NFL, the teams are positioned on each side of the field, across its width. There are 53 players and dozens of assistants, three times more than a soccer team. The advantage in this regard is that the width in the NFL is shorter than in soccer, so no work will be needed on the front rows of the sides, although modifications have been made to the tunnels leading to the dressing rooms.
Again, forget the soccer image. The teams will not come out through the stairs that Real Madrid and its rivals usually use, but two areas have been created in both corners of the benches for the players and coaches to come out from the dressing rooms with more space and comfort. In addition, some of the coaching staff will be placed in the TV booths to follow the game from above. These works have forced the closure of the Bernabéu Tour from Thursday to Sunday.
To accommodate those 53 players changing and showering, the dressing rooms have been expanded, and a new press room has been set up in the area where the mixed zone is held, as each team uses a different press room. Even in this aspect, the NFL has transformed, not wanting the daily life of the franchises far from their borders to be different from that at 'home'.
Inside, the Bernabéu Museum has made room for the NFL Museum, a series of corners throughout the stadium where fans can see historical equipment and relics from the league.
Through the department in charge of the stadium, now called 'Bernabéu', Real Madrid has also provided a large part of the official store space for the NFL to sell all its merchandise there, not only from Miami and Washington, but from all the league's franchises.
At the top of the stadium, the shield of the white team will no longer be present, instead, the roof of the Bernabéu will feature the flags of Spain, the NFL, and the United States, whose anthem will play in the pre-game. At halftime, there will be a stellar performance by Daddy Yankee and Bizarrap, trying to imitate the show of a Super Bowl. The league officials made it clear in this newspaper that they wanted to "create a mini Super Bowl at the Bernabéu". That sports and cultural spectacle is the most well-known aspect of the NFL outside its borders and could not be missing from the Madrid game.
In line with the performance, workers have been installing different panels this week to cover some areas at the top of the stadium to try to reduce external noise to avoid issues with neighbors, who reported Real Madrid for exceeding the allowed decibel levels in the area. The game time (3:30 pm) will help, but the club does not want to take any risks.
Beyond the Bernabéu, the city has dressed up for the occasion. The Community of Madrid and the city council have invested 3.3 million euros (1.5 from Ayuso's government and 1.8 from Almeida's) to promote the game, which is displayed on all the streets of the city center thanks to posters placed on the streetlights. Institutions expect an economic impact of 70 million euros, the result of all the advertising actions that will take place throughout the capital. There will be activities in Cibeles, Plaza Mayor, Sol, or Vallehermoso, and the presence of other franchises not playing the game, such as the Kansas City Chiefs or the Chicago Bears.
The Bernabéu will act as a "turning point," as admitted by the organization, for the definitive expansion of the NFL in Spain.