In their book titled Messi vs Ronaldo, Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson revealed Florentio Pérez’s former plan to create a Real Madrid-themed amusement park.
Before commencing the renovation of the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, Los Blancos’ president was entertaining the idea of the creation of RealMadridLand, a theme park which had the football stadium located at its heart. As communicated by Mundo Deportivo, it is believed that Pérez even met up with former Disney executives to discuss his idea.
He firmly believed that it was the best way for Real Madrid to compete with the budgets of PSG and Manchester City:
“In our world, we are as big as Disney. 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 been constructed in Valdebebas, but nothing materialised as the club did not have 75% of the €1.4bn budget necessary to complete the project.
GSFN | Tom Cserép
