Having passed through Madrid for one evening for Luka Doncic’s big return to his former club Real, the NBA seems to have ideas in mind regarding the Spanish capital. Indeed, the Great League does not exclude the idea of a regular season match at… Santiago-Bernabéu.
Will Santiago Bernabéu, the legendary football venue and home of the great Real Madrid, one day be transformed into a basketball arena? If Mark Tatum (deputy to commissionaire Adam Silver) is to be believed, it’s not impossible at all (via ESPN).
“I had the opportunity to see the new Bernabéu and it’s incredible what they have done here. I saw the retractable lawn system. It will be a world-class stadium. If conditions allow, we would love to play here.”
What exactly is the “new Bernabéu”? That’s it :
The Bernabéu with its new 360° LED display fully lit!
????@Fanaticos_RMCFpic.twitter.com/CG4KDKvjDV
— Real France (@realfrance_fr) August 22, 2023
And that :
???? The new roof at the Santiago Bernabeu. ???? pic.twitter.com/1mqTEzQzjb
— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) August 23, 2023
Or even this:
????️???????? The retractable lawn of the Bernabéu like you’ve never seen it!#RealFootball pic.twitter.com/tRRd44dqXL
— Real Madrid CF ???????? (@realmadridfra) September 5, 2023
Retractable roof, new 360° LED display, unique system in the world for lowering and raising the pitch… in short, the Madrilenians didn’t do things by halves. This major renovation of the stadium, which cost a billion euros, will obviously allow the organization of new events, including a possible NBA match in front of a potentially record crowd (Bernabéu has almost 85,000 seats). A bit like a March Madness Final Four match, which takes place every year in American football stadiums.
“We also take into account the fact that it is a big market (Spain/Madrid) with a real history, like France, where the Olympic Games will take place next year. There are other markets that interest us; Germany, Spain, Italy are important to us.”
– Mark Tatum
Still in its desire to develop internationally, the NBA is seeking to relocate preseason or even regular season matches abroad, but this necessarily depends on the reception capacities of the cities in question. With the new Bernabéu and the WiZink Center, a 17,000-seat venue where the Real – Dallas match took place yesterday, Madrid is in any case rather well placed to host other Grand League matches in the future.
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Source texte : ESPN
2023-10-11 18:17:00
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