Features
Huge Chunk Of Business Lost As Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu Postpones All Concerts
Spanish soccer club Real Madrid, operator of the new Santiago Bernabéu Stadium in the capital, has announced a postponement of all scheduled concerts due to noise complaints from local residents.
New dates will be announced for Dellafuente, who was originally scheduled to perform Nov. 15; Aitana, who was initially scheduled to perform Dec. 28-29, already announced June 27-28, 2025 as replacement dates.
The decision to postpone these events is part of a series of measures that Real Madrid has been taking “to ensure strict compliance with current municipal regulations during concerts,” a statement on the club’s website reads.
It continues to state, that, despite the stadium’s soundproofing, compliance with said regulations hasn’t been possible at past shows, which include Taylor Swift in May, Manuel Carrasco in June, as well as Luis Miguel and Karol G in July.
It looks like Real Madrid is planning some bigger works, as even the show by Lola Índigo, scheduled for March 22, 2025, had to be postponed.
See: Pollstar’s Annual Spain Focus 2024
The postponed shows represent a huge chunk of business lost in 2024, as the boxoffice reports submitted to Pollstar from concerts at Santiago Bernabéu prove.
Karol G, who performed four times July 20-23, sold a total of 219,943 tickets and grossed an astonishing $23,602,998 across all four shows, which were promoted by Live Nation.
That same month, Luis Miguel sold 89,185 tickets across two shows, July 6-7, grossing $13,824,966, promoted Iglesias Entertainment, Cárdenas Marketing Network (CMN), and Fenix Entertainment Group.
The refurbishment and redesign of Santiago Bernabéu Stadium was completed in 2023, the first home game of Real Madrid FC took place Sept. 2. The massive undertaking was realized with a €360 million ($400 million at the time of writing) investment from Sixth Street and Legends, to be invested across any of the club’s activities.
Sixth Street in turn acquired the right “to participate in the operation of certain new businesses of the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium for twenty years. In addition, Legends will contribute its experience in the operation of large stadiums, attractions and event spaces to optimize the management of the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium,” the press release from Sixth Street announced in May 2022, when the deal was made public.
One of the most prominent “new businesses” at the Bernabeu is, of course, the concert business, and Pollstar has reached out to Sixth Street for a statement on these latest developments.
A source on the ground in Madrid told Pollstar that the noise outside the stadium had been consistently loud on concert nights, even before the main shows with the fully amplified sound started, suggesting it would be somewhat of a miracle if the club found a way to reduce noise levels to below the legal mandate.