The Bernabéu is an Airport: When Success Kills Identity

Have you seen the new Santiago Bernabeu?. It is a technological marvel. It has a retractable pitch that hides in a cave. It has a 360-degree screen that makes Las Vegas look subtle. It generates money with the efficiency of a Swiss bank.

It is also dead.

Marc Augé coined the term “Non-Place” to describe spaces of transience. Airports. Supermarkets. Hotel chains. Places where human relations are suspended and you are defined solely by your credit card limit.

The Bernabéu is no longer a stadium. It is a Non-Place. It is a luxury terminal where airplanes are replaced by footballers.

The Gentrification of Passion

This is the price of absolute success. To become a global brand you must sanitize your existence. You cannot have the raw, chaotic energy of a local community because that scares away the global partners.

The fan from Carabanchel who went to the stadium every Sunday for forty years? He is gone. He was expelled. Not by force but by economics.

He has been replaced by the “experience seeker”. The tourist who buys the €150 jersey. The influencer recording a TikTok dance during a penalty kick. The customer who demands a clean seat and a gourmet burger rather than a goal.

The stadium is cleaner now. It is safer. It is richer. But it feels like a conference center.

The Ultimate Question

We are witnessing the final stage of modern football. The clubs are no longer organs of their cities. They are content production hubs for a global audience that will never step foot in Madrid.

This efficiency is profitable. It buys the best players. It wins trophies. But it forces a brutal choice upon us.

Do you prefer to win the Champions League every year treated as a customer in a shopping mall? Or would you rather suffer in the second division knowing you are the emotional owner of your destiny?

The shareholders have already made their choice. They prefer the silence of the airport lounge to the noise of the stands.