Florentino Perez's Santiago Bernabeu Plan Reportedly Proposes Capacity Reduction

Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium will reportedly lose 2,500 seats when club president Florentino Perez enacts his plan to revamp the arena.

According to AS' J.L. Guerrero, the Spaniard's latest proposal for the stadium will cost the club €400 million and some of their capacity. The initial plan to remodel the Bernabeu would have seen its capacity increase by 5,000 seats.   

AS shared a picture of the proposed design:

The stadium revamp has been put on hold due to a court ruling and cost Los Blancos between €20 and €25 million due to a fine from the European Commission.

To rectify the situation, Perez has had three meetings with the Madrid City Council and will meet with them again "before the summer" to offer his new proposal, which will include significant changes to the plan approved by the club's members.

Per Guerrero, the initial proposal included a retractable roof for the stadium, 5,000 extra seats and a 30 per cent revenue increase courtesy of "a commercial centre and a hotel on La Castellana (the main road that runs along the ground’s west stand)."

However, while the new plan "would still include the same exterior design," it will actually come at a cost of seats due to the lack of "reforms to the urban planning laws" and the hotel will not only be significantly smaller—less than half the 150 rooms proposed—it will also be moved to the east stand.

The story also made the newspaper's cover:

"

AS:

Bernabeu roof would make them lose capacity (2500 seats).

€400m project cost.

Socios haven't been consulted. pic.twitter.com/JOaAeyChKg

— M.A.J (@UItraSuristic) March 28, 2016"

The Bernabeu's current capacity is 85,454, making it the second-largest football stadium in Spain after Barcelona's Camp Nou and one of the biggest in Europe.