Taylor Swift's double concert was a major test for Real Madrid's refurbished stadium. Wednesday's and Thursday's performances were an organisational and prestigious success for the Bernabeu, but they may be the drop that will pour the spell of bitterness over the neighbours in the Hispanoamérica district. The amount of punishment the club may face is rather symbolic.

‘Magic night’ or nightmare?

45 songs, more than three hours on stage and at least 65,000 spectators. And twice, evening after evening. ‘Taylor Swift has landed in Madrid to take to the skies’, proclaimed the MARCA headline after the American star's first concert, comparing the event to Papal Masses or a Rolling Stones concert in 1982 held on Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. AS, on the other hand, wrote about ‘Taylor Swift's magical night at the Bernabeu’.

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The singer's phenomenon dominated the front pages of Spanish newspapers, which detailed her workout routine, “post-Taylor Swift depression” and analysed the American star's behaviour during the concert. It was only on the further pages that one could read about the problems with the concert that we wrote about hours before the first show. Once again, volume standards were exceeded and Mundo Deportivo informed about 25 complaints to the police.

El País reports that their meters registered 87 decibels in a block of flats near Bernabéu while the legal limit for the evening is 58 decibels. The sound measurement is logarithmic, hence 87 decibels (a level considered harmful) means that the legal limit is exceeded many times. In addition, there were traffic obstructions and crowds of people long before and after the concert.

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Ridiculous consequences?

AS, citing the Billboard website, reports that each Taylor Swift concert from ‘The Eras Tour’ generates between $11 and $13 million for the American star. According to the Spanish newspaper, each concert at the Bernabeu generated similar revenue, around $10m, bringing the total to around $20m.

La Voz de Galicia and Antena 3, however, reported that the two concerts generated a total of €13m, of which Real Madrid will receive €9.1m, as the agreement with Legends and Sixth Street stipulates that 70% of the profits from concerts will go to the Spanish club's account. A further €25m has been injected into the hotel and service industries and the city budget.

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The figures, despite differences in estimates, run into the millions, while fines for exceeding noise standards run into thousands. The Noise and Heat Pollution Protection Ordinance provides for fines of only €12,001 up to €300,000 for ‘very serious exceedances’ of standards. For Real Madrid, this is not an acute amount compared to €9.1 million in revenue.

More impressive are the possibilities of requisitioning speakers or even shutting down the venue enshrined in further sections of the regulation. However, no one in Spain is considering this possibility, and both the club and city authorities are talking about working to solve the problem. The neighbours' protests, however, could be an image blow to the new Bernabeu despite the undoubted success of the Taylor Swift concert organisers.

© Madrid1902