Stadium Relocation in Professional Football: Brand Identity, Club Authenticity and Fan Acceptance

The aim of this paper is to conceptually illustrate the tension between commercialisation and club authenticity, which is a potential consequence of stadium relocation. There is a commercial pressure for relocating a football club to new and more modern facilities, but also a pressure from the brand identity perspective to maintain the core traditions of the club where the stadium plays a central role. This brand identity is in turn co-created by the community of stakeholders that demand authenticity from the club. These tensions are illustrated by the upcoming relocation of Atletico de Madrid from their stadium Vicente Calderón. The empirical base for the illustration consists of rich secondary data, focus group interviews with supporters and an expert interview. The results confirm the tensions identified; and future research should be conducted after the relocation is fully implemented to address the ex post effects as well.