Apple and Real Madrid team up: an infinite soccer stadium in the metaverse

Florentino Pérez first floated the idea at the 2024 Assembly. “The issue of season tickets…,” the president replied when a member asked about it. “There isn’t much of a solution. There are 34,000 members without season tickets. There’s no more room. Unless we build an Infinite Stadium…,” he hinted. “Building it as if it were endless. The thing is, some fans already watch from home with a headset and, I have to say, the view is better than in the stadium. And this way they would have a seat at home, a Madrid season ticket…”.

That idea has been taking shape in recent months and is now a reality. The club has announced, through GQ, its partnership with Apple, with whom it is developing the project. “We’re working together on something I’ve been chasing for years – allowing any fan to feel the Bernabéu as if they were here inside the stadium,” Pérez told the magazine. “It will be like opening the doors of the stadium to the entire planet, without limits and with a technological quality that will set a new standard in the sports world.” And when asked about the financial impact, he insisted that is not the immediate priority. “What really matters is giving the club’s billion fans the experience they want. Steve Jobs wasn’t obsessed with financial results, he was obsessed with creating extraordinary products. When you focus on excellence, the rest follows.”

Still, the potential revenue is staggering. Look at the numbers. Rapper Travis Scott drew more than 12 million fans a year and a half ago for a virtual concert inside Fortnite, organised by Epic Games. Do the math. If Madrid managed to bring together 50 million people for a match – a realistic target for a club with more than 200 million supporters worldwide – and charged just one dollar…

An Infinite Bernabéu close to becoming a reality

Real Madrid already has a specific division in its organizational structure dedicated to technological development. It’s the Transformation Department and reports directly to CEO José Ángel Sánchez. This division, dedicated to developing the digital and metaverse aspects of Real Madrid, has become known as ‘RM Next’ and focuses on six areas: e-health, performance, fan engagement, audiovisual content generation, cybersecurity, and technological and social infrastructure. It even has its own website: www.realmadridnext.com. In any case, as Florentino Pérez announced a year ago, the president himself is personally handling the negotiations with Apple to create the Infinite Bernabéu, a project that will definitively bring the club into the modern age.

Madrid hopes to replicate what the NBA, NCAA (college football) and even Manchester United have already achieved. The NBA and NCAA were the first to commercialize games inside the metaverse, and their experience is the most advanced. The idea Pérez and the club are working on is to offer different seats – from courtside equivalents to behind the goal – to billions of users simultaneously. To do this, matches would need to be filmed using 360-degree cameras in addition to the traditional broadcast setup. This would allow a fan watching in the metaverse to feel as if they were sitting in the stands next to someone who really is in the Bernabéu… in real time.

The technology already makes a fully immersive experience possible, but there is still a long way to go. Costs must be considered – both for the broadcast and for fans. Apple’s virtual-reality headset, the Vision Pro, sells for around $3,500 in the U.S., and for the best experience you’d also want spatial-audio AirPods that adjust sound direction and intensity based on head movement and where the action is happening. That way, both the image and the stadium’s audio would feel real. Many other brands offer more affordable VR headsets and already support 4K resolution.

The plan is ambitious, and Madrid, as in many areas, wants to lead. The main obstacle is that smartphones now do everything, and it’s hard to convince the mass market to adopt costlier devices such as VR headsets. This is especially true among young fans. Market research shows that only 5% of Gen Z and millennial viewers currently use VR, although 70% are interested and 63% are willing to pay for the experience. Immersive viewing might be appealing, but younger audiences are used to watching sports while checking stats and interacting with comments. That is the real challenge – that, and the legal question of whether clubs can monetize this content themselves. This is another battle. For now, Madrid is already moving to ensure its gleaming new stadium also has infinite capacity in the metaverse.

The Premier League example

Europe’s major clubs are already racing to enter this virtual world. Competing with Madrid are, above all, United and City. In February 2022, City became the first club to announce it was building a virtual stadium inside the metaverse – precisely the concept Pérez is now pursuing. It is doing so with Japanese tech giant Sony. But Manchester United is even further ahead. In August 2024, it launched a spectacular immersive event in an innovative space called the DOMO in Los Angeles, where the opening Premier League match between the Red Devils and Fulham was projected.

Inside that DOMO, the tables were arranged like stands, and spectators were surrounded by a massive 892-square-metre high-resolution LED screen. This setup created the illusion of being in the middle of the match, completely immersing attendees in the action, complete with stadium sound. Cosm was the company behind the event. One of its executives described it as “more than a front-row seat.” In practice, those at the bar experienced the game like any of the 75,000 fans inside Old Trafford. Tickets cost $22 for a general-stand equivalent and more than $100 for premium areas that simulated sitting in the best seats.

United has partnered with Cosm, one of the world’s most advanced shared-VR companies, but it has also created an internal division to develop its metaverse presence. Called Web3, it goes beyond the ability to generate a virtual Old Trafford – it aims to offer fans access to digital ownership. The club already sells metaverse-viewable matches through platforms such as Sky Worlds, Oculus Quest and Horizon Worlds.