Real Madrid planning to rename the iconic Santiago Bernabeu – report | OneFootball

The year 2024 saw a growing trend of Real Madrid’s home stadium Santiago Bernabeu being increasingly used for external events.

As years progressed, it became conspicuously clear that the Merengues see great commercial potential in the club facilities, more so after the recent renovations.

Now, as relayed by MARCA, Real Madrid are slowly bringing about a change in the name of the stadium itself, although it is still far from official.

Only the surname remains

The Santiago Bernabeu, famously named after one of the club’s greatest legends, is slowly losing its name as the club administration are doing away with the first name and calling it just ‘The Bernabeu’.

Real Madrid want to rename Santiago Bernabeu. (Photo by Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)

The stadium’s website is already called just by the term Bernabeu, as is the official social media profile of the venue.

The tour of the stadium is now called Tour Bernabeu and even the recently released memorabilia of the model of the stadium has only a tag that reads Bernabeu.

The term ‘Santiago’, thus, appears to be on its way out although Real Madrid are ensuring to stay low-profile and slow with their steps in that regard. After all, it is an experiment whose results must be studied carefully.

A shorter name would serve the club well for commercial purposes and also keep the door open to any lucrative sponsorships in the future as Barcelona have done with the Camp Nou with Spotify.

An official change in name is still far off as it will require approval from the members’ assembly. Should the fans show acceptance towards the new name, however, it may not be far off.