Bernabeu Stadium’s most fascinating feature has NFL’s interest
MADRID — The most fascinating feature of Santiago Bernabeu Stadium is off limits to nearly everyone that visits the famed soccer venue.
I asked for permission and I was told by a spokesperson for Real Madrid — which plays in Bernabeu — that it was “impossible,” which, I have to admit, is a pretty effective way to close the door on a request.
It’s the stadium’s retractable pitch system, pitch being the proper name for a soccer field. (If that wasn’t hammered into your head after a summer of World Cup.)
Sunday, the Falcons and Bengals will play on a hybrid grass field that, when it’s not in use, is separated into six panels and lowered into an underground storage vault.
There, the panels are stacked in a chamber about 100 feet deep with controlled temperature, humidity and artificial light.
“The field’s designed, at this point, to grow underground,” Nick Pappas, field director for the NFL, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday during a stadium tour given to media. “It’s happiest underground.”
Pappas actually lives in Newnan. Before going to work for the NFL, he oversaw the Mercedes-Benz Stadium field for AMB Sports and Entertainment from 2018-2022.
Unlike some people, Pappas was granted permission to see the storage facility.
“As someone who studied agronomy, I couldn’t come here and not see it,” he said.
Being put in charge of the field by the NFL apparently provides one with more pull than being a visiting sports columnist. (You may be asking yourself, “What job doesn’t?”)
While there are NFL stadiums with retractable fields — Las Vegas and Arizona have grass fields that slide out of the stadium on a tray — Bernabeu’s system is unique.
Here’s what’s even more interesting: NFL teams have interest in it. And it wouldn’t have to be limited to new stadiums. Bernabeu had been standing for decades when the system was installed in 2022 as part of a massive renovation, including a retractable roof.
“I think this one has created interest amongst our NFL teams,” Pappas said. “I think the question is, can you maintain a pitch even in that indoor, enclosed environment (that) we’d expect in an outdoor (stadium) or beyond what a synthetic surface could provide.”
Field quality became a more pressing interest for the NFL during the World Cup, when seven NFL stadiums with synthetic fields that hosted tournament games (including Mercedes-Benz Stadium) put down temporary natural grass fields per FIFA’s specifications. It led the NFL Players Association to question why team owners couldn’t provide that benefit for its players.
Might one of those interested NFL teams be one from Atlanta, one with a synthetic field that was given a C-minus by Falcons players in an NFL Players Association survey?
I asked a Falcons spokesperson, who was looking into the matter but did not provide an answer before this column was filed.
Undoubtedly, Falcons (and Atlanta United) players would prefer it.
Pappas noted that an effective field storage system is not as simple as digging a deep hole and throwing money at it, a literal money pit. The management of the grass underground is a massive challenge.
“This is an extremely difficult environment for the team here to manage a playing surface,” Pappas said.
Also, it isn’t always possible. It partly depends, for instance, on whether the earth beneath the stadium would be conducive to being removed. As an example, he brought up Hard Rock Stadium near Miami and the likelihood that the water table beneath it would prevent such a system there.
As for Mercedes-Benz Stadium?
“Could Atlanta?” he asked. He paused. “Don’t know. I mean, sure: Anything’s possible.”
Would Arthur Blank bite on such a colossal and expensive undertaking?
I know this much.
If he wants to take a gander at Bernabeu’s basement, it won’t be impossible.
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