Why is it possible and not with Real Madrid?

This Sunday, the Santiago Bernabéu will expertise an unprecedented occasion in Spain. For the primary time, an official NFL sport will likely be performed on Spanish territory when the Miami Dolphins and Washington Commanders take to the grass of the white coliseum.

However past the sporting spectacle, there’s a peculiarity that has generated debate: followers will be capable of purchase and devour beer with alcohol contained in the stadium, one thing unthinkable when Actual Madrid performs.

The distinction will not be capricious nor does it reply to the privileges of the Madrid membership, however relatively a strictly authorized problem. Regulation 19/2007 in opposition to Violence in Sports activities establishes exhaustively that the introduction, sale and consumption of all forms of alcoholic drinks is prohibited in amenities the place sports activities competitions are held.

This regulation, born after the tragic occasions of violence in European stadiums and bolstered by the Strasbourg European Conference of 1985, is rigorously utilized in Spanish soccer.

The penalties for non-compliance are extreme. Followers who violate this ban face fines of between 150 and three,000 euros, along with doable bans from stadium entry of as much as six months.

The golf equipment don’t escape unscathed both: the Anti-Violence Fee can impose sanctions of as much as 10,000 euros if they permit the sale of alcoholic drinks throughout the premises.

Why the NFL?

Nevertheless, the NFL sport operates underneath completely different parameters. As it’s an occasion organized by a personal American league outdoors the framework of official Spanish or common European sports activities competitions, it isn’t topic to the identical strict software of anti-violence rules.

This distinction permits the NFL’s attribute enterprise mannequin, the place the sale of beer constitutes a elementary a part of the spectator expertise, to be replicated in Madrid.

The European precedent is about by London, the place NFL matches have been held for years with free sale of alcohol, whereas Premier League matches have maintained the ban in pressure since 1985.

Tottenham Hotspur Stadium generates greater than 1,000,000 kilos per NFL sport solely from beer gross sales, in line with information from the league itself. Actual Madrid, which is able to retain all meals, drink and merchandising revenue from the occasion, goals to duplicate this profitability mannequin.

Whereas at soccer video games Spanish laws categorically prohibits alcohol even in situations of utmost warmth, the NFL occasion will enable its consumption usually. This double normal doesn’t reply to favoritism, however to the differentiated authorized nature of each forms of sporting occasions.

The Anti-Violence Fee, which meets fortnightly to investigate incidents in Spanish competitions and suggest sanctions, doesn’t have jurisdiction over worldwide occasions such because the NFL that aren’t a part of the official aggressive calendar.

Hence, the strict security measures implemented for the match, which include exhaustive controls and the prohibition of numerous objects, do not include the restriction of alcohol among their regulations.

The public investment of 3.3 million euros between the Community of Madrid and the City Council seeks to position the capital as the regular venue for the league, with the expectation of generating an economic return of 16 million euros.

A figure that, inevitably, includes the significant income from the sale of alcoholic beverages that in Spanish football remains prohibited by law.