Florentino Perez deliberate to maneuver Real Madrid from the Bernabeu to a brand new stadium in the midst of a theme park known as ‘RealMadridLand’, just for the failure of the concept to fireside the European Super League undertaking.
The audacious plan – which is one in all plenty of detailed revelations from the brand new ebook ‘Messi vs Ronaldo’ by Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson – bought thus far that the Madrid president was in talks with a gaggle of former Disney executives led by long-time CEO Michael Eisner.
Perez had even drawn up sketches for rollercoasters that may comply with the trajectory of well-known membership objectives, akin to Zinedine Zidane’s volley to win the 2002 Champions League closing.
Perez had began to behave on the concept across the 2017-18 season, as he realised the drastic want to search out new income streams to be able to sustain with the state-owned golf equipment in Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain. It fell aside as a result of Eisner and his staff realised Perez would wish 75% greater than the €1.4bn funds he had secured, as a result of sprawling nature of the undertaking.
They had additionally raised issues concerning the coaching floor being in the midst of the theme park, doubtlessly permitting rival golf equipment to view the soccer staff’s tactical plans – a notion that Perez dismissed with the road: “People see all that stuff anyway.”
It was the cost of keeping the squad together that first motivated the Madrid president, as a series of pay rises had seen the wage bill jump by 32 per cent over 2017. Perez had also noted how, in negotiations with agents such as Jorge Mendes and specifically over Cristiano Ronaldo’s eventual departure, City and PSG had constantly been raised as clubs who would be willing to pay the money that Madrid wouldn’t.
Realising the need for something drastic, the engineering billionaire believed that a theme park was ultimately the same as signing a Galactico in terms of buzz around the club, and that even the sacrilege of moving from the Bernabeu could be recast as necessary evolution.
The idea had been in Perez’s mind for years, as the club had held internal discussions over the possibility in 2004, and even entered into negotiations to licence the club name to a resort in the United Arab Emirates. That would have also involved a marina in the shape of the club crest.
The ebook particulars how the president now noticed it as a “financial necessity” to be able to preserve tempo, which led to the previous Disney executives being invited to the Bernabeu boardroom.
“In our world, we are as big as Disney,” he stated, in keeping with one of many ebook’s sources who had been current. “Real Madrid must do things like this because we are the number-one club, and the only way we will remain there is by always being the first big innovator.”
‘RealMadridLand’ would have primarily served as a multi-purpose new headquarters for the membership, with an amusement park and stadium close to the present base of Valdebebas, in addition to a coaching complicated that includes each staff from the under-sevens up. It was right here that Perez additionally introduced some sketches for particular person rides named after legendary gamers, having seen the Ferrari World amusement park in Abu Dhabi.
While Eisner and his advisers had been impressed by the size of the proposal, they doubted the power to assemble. Perez at one level within the preliminary assembly sensed their concern, and pointed to the gathering of silverware within the boardroom. Underneath the 12 Champions League trophies of the time was a plaque formally recognising Madrid as Fifa’s finest membership of the twentieth century
“Everyone else is fighting for these trophies,” Pérez stated, earlier than the flourish. “Real Madrid is fighting for this. We want the next one of these.”
Eisner’s staff spent three months finding out the plans and got here again with an inventory of issues. Among them had been the truth that Madrid already had a Warner theme park and questions over whether or not ‘RealMadridLand’ might even break even.
There was then the situation of the coaching base.
“If you have an upcoming match against Barça, you might not want people watching practice, because there could just as easily be a Barcelona fan recording the whole thing and figuring out your tactics,” one of many executives stated. That introduced Perez’s dismissal.
Ultimately, nevertheless, the Madrid president solely had agreements for €1.4bn in funding and a 130-acre website. The former Disney executives concluded €2.5bn was required in addition to a plot of land nearer to 250 acres resulting from accommodations and convention centres. It led Perez to look elsewhere.
Source: www.unbiased.co.uk