During the 1999-2000 season the club implemented a modernisation process called “21st Century Leading Project”. Numerous services were made available to members and fans: the Real Madrid Line (a telephone line for members and fans), ticket sales via the telephone (the first time in history), and a transferable and financed season-ticket.
The capacity of the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium was distributed by sectors, and the stadium’s signs were redone. The third amphitheatre facing Padre Damián street was remodelled, placing 9,380 seats. This was in addition to the 16,000 seats installed the previous season in different sections of the stadium. Capacity was reduced to 75,000 fans. Madrid’s great theatre was now an all-seat stadium.
Upon being elected president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez implemented the ‘Stadium’s Infrastructure Master Plan’. It contemplated technically updating the installations and infrastructure, their commercial exploitation, and the setting up of new business activities. This has meant that it has become a ‘365-days a year stadium’. It has four restaurants, the ‘Tour of the Bernabéu’, and the world’s largest sports store.
The club changed the electronic scoreboards, the public address system, and the dressing rooms. The Padre Damián facade and roof were inaugurated. The stadium is the best heated in the world thanks to the 1,300 heaters that were installed. It is also the world’s first remotely managed football stadium. Through an Integrated Control Unit the entire Bernabéu is remotely managed. In 2007 UEFA included the Bernabéu in their list of Elite Stadiums. It is a sporting, social, commercial and business benchmark. An example of modernity, functionality and management.
