Real Madrid to have increased Bernabeu capacity for opening home game of 2022/23 season
Real Madrid will have an increased capacity at the Santiago Bernabeu when they play their first home game of the season at the start of September.
Los Blancos have been on the road so far in 2022/23 and will play another away game at Espanyol on 28 August as work continues apace on the redeveloped Bernabeu.
The project won’t be fully complete until the summer of 2023, but enough work has been done to allow the opening of new seats in west stand after playing with a capacity of around 60,000 at the end of last season, AS has reported.
The final capacity will eventually reach 82,000, while a new pitch will be laid this week in preparation for their game with Real Betis next month.
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Work on the new Bernabeu began in 2020, which initially made the stadium unplayable. But Real temporarily moved to the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano at their Valdebebas training ground while that phase of the project was ongoing – games being played behind closed doors because of the Covid-19 pandemic meant the loss of capacity didn’t actually matter.
This season, Real have started with back-to-back wins over Almeria and Celta Vigo in defence of their Spanish title – Carlo Ancelotti’s side are second in the table behind Villarreal on goal difference.