“This is probably the last big project of growth for Atletico Madrid,” explains Atletico Madrid Director of Operations Fernando Fariza to Football España.
“After 15 years of growth on the pitch, reaching record numbers of members, attendances and social media fans since moving away from our beloved old stadium, the Vicente Calderon, to the new Metropolitano stadium. This project of growth finishes and complements that which has already happened, and consolidates this great transformation that Atletico Madrid have undergone lately.”
It is a grand plan that Fariza and Atletico Madrid are putting together, including Madrid’s first beach, and taking out a 75-year lease. You could say they are putting down roots. And if all goes to plan, it will be here in just over two years time – there is no denying it sounds impressive.
After moving to their shiny new Civitas Metropolitano in 2016, Atletico Madrid have now shifted focus to their training facilities, and are building their own state of the art base next to the stadium from which Diego Simeone can plot the downfall of great empires. It is not yet clear what will happen to the two facilities which are currently being rented.
The plans off the pitch go far beyond that though. Los Colchoneros want to take the the term ‘sports city’, and turn it into a minor town for pleasure and leisure. That long-term lease has been agreed with the Madrid council, and encompasses a vast area of around 265,000m². Amongst those grand plans are giving the landlocked citizens of Madrid some seaside relief with the largest artificial beach in Europe.
“This we will have as well, we will have a new training ground (including a 6,000 capacity mini-stadium), but this project is much more ambitious. What we want is a sports city for all of Madrid, for the citizens of Madrid, for Atleticos, for non-Atleticos and for tourists.”
“It will be the first installation of (man-made) surfing in Spain. A surfing beach the size of 3 football pitches, which allows us to include other beach sports and a seaside of sorts – given there is no sea in Madrid,” Fariza adds with a hint of smile.
“This will be managed by Atletico Madrid for the next 75 years. Terraces, with restaurants, bars, shops with sporting goods, so that fans can come by any day of the year and enjoy a day of leisure, a day with the family, and have fun. This is an example of how to continue the growth of Atletico Madrid, not just in terms of football, but also on the social side, Atletico Madrid is not just playing football, it’s a way of life, of enjoying life,” he continues.
Clearly Fariza is doing his job, and espousing a message, but there’s enough feeling there to think he would argue the same case in his own leisure time.
“We are negotiating with the council of Madrid to reorganise the aquatic centre that was half-built and abandoned as part of the Olympic bid. Convert it into sports centre, with a gym, but it also will be used as a music venue, Atletico Madrid have always been strongly linked to music, and this will allow us to host events every day of the year with a capacity of 20,000.”
Already work has begun on these projects, with the first dirt disturbed in October of 2022. The Metropolitano, like its predecessor the Calderon, is already hosting festival events and concerts through the summer too. Aside from surfing, there will be space for golf, beach volleyball, beach football, climbing, zip line, padel, skating, BMX biking, and Topgolf, a simulated golf course experience.
The natural reaction, given the amount of hooligans in football finance, is to be sceptical about the money. Only time will tell how profitable this operation will be, and whether they can stick to budgets during a painful period of inflation, but Fariza details that at least in theory, these new facilities will be paid for within several years.
“We are already making €35m more per year compared with the old stadium, effectively doubling our income in all areas. The investment of Atletico, as well as the La Liga Impulso agreement, which has to be put towards infrastructure and in our case was around €130m, as we don’t have to invest in the stadium, all of that money will be invested in the project.”
Relevo put the total investment at around €254m, which would suggest that if all of the extra money being raised from the Metropolitano was dedicated to it, then the costs could be ammortised by 2027.
The council are obviously heavily involved in the whole project, conceding planning permission after some time, and leasing out the land for such a lengthy period of time. Fariza himself is at lengths to stress two central tenets of the operation, the first that this is very much a social project.
“[This is] not just a football city for Atletico, but a sports city for all of Madrid and Madrilenos. Obviously we want Atletico and their fans to feel comfortable, but above all, we want all Madrilenos to feel comfortable, which is an important difference with respect to other sports cities that other teams have built, which are solely focused on the high performance of their teams.”
“We wanted to be very open to the city of Madrid, we carry the name of Madrid, we have the bear in our badge, the symbol of Madrid… We have to do things for the community of Madrid, open ourselves to its citizens.”
And secondly, that their very business model has to recall the famous tifo that greeted Real Madrid during a derby match in 2017 – ‘Proud not to be like you’. Fariza is a little more gentle in his delivery, but makes it clear they see that as their mantra, method and ultimately, selling point.
“Our task is to offer something distinct, not just football, we are going to offer an area of leisure, different to what they [Real Madrid] do, but we have to be distinct in order to compete with them, and it’s our way of doing so.”
“Effectively, it doesn’t seem like a project that fits with a football club. We are very conscious of that, you will already know that we compete against other big clubs, and we always have to do things differently, and our fans are different, this is what differentiates us from other big clubs like Barcelona or Real Madrid, with all due respect.”
