Playing football on the roof of a 130-meter tall building It will be possible in Dubai thanks to Chelsea.
A football field located 130 meters high? A scenario that will soon become a reality thanks to the partnership between Chelsea and DAMAC. The real estate development company based in Dubai has become the main sponsor of the Blues for the final part of the 2024/25 season and the agreement between the two parties will lead to the construction of a new football-themed residential complex in the heart of the UAE. Specifically, it is a project of 1400 luxury housing units, enhanced by a range of extra activities, such as a private cinema, and a football field on the rooftop. The complex will be called Chelsea Residences by DAMAC and will also feature a statue of a blue lion in honor of the club.
This project represents only the latest chapter in the increasingly strong relationship between football and real estate. Football clubs are becoming more interested in investing in this sector and real estate companies, in turn, have multiple interests in collaborating with them. Just last February, Century 21 Real Estate LLC became the official partner of MLS, and for the past couple of years, TM Real Estate Group has been the main sponsor of Valencia. The cases concerning English football do not stop at Chelsea. Tottenham, for example, has obtained permission from Haringey City Council to build a 30-storey hotel with 128 bedrooms in total near the stadium, which the club plans to have ready for Euro 2028. And it's not just the big teams: as Lorenzo Pandolfi reported for Requadro, Millwall will also have a new stadium, as the plan includes the option to build 3500 new housing units. And if it is not the clubs that invest directly, they are still a great source of attraction, as evidenced by the fact that the Madrid City Council will build the Madrid Innovation District, a new urban space dedicated to technological development, on a land owned by Real Madrid.
The case of Juventus is also worth mentioning, with the J|Hotel, a four-star hotel with 138 rooms and five meeting rooms located just a few steps from the Allianz Stadium and the Juventus Museum. 32 of these rooms are dedicated to the first team players, who also have access to a special tunnel that connects the hotel to the training center. The idea of building a hotel was also considered by AC Milan in the project for the new stadium in San Donato, but for now, it has been put on hold while waiting to understand, together with Inter, what the future of San Siro will be. However, the trend is clear: football clubs are transforming into real estate companies. A trend that is slowly reaching Italy as well. The projects for new stadiums, even in the few cases where they go from rendering to reality, always include points dedicated to the construction of buildings in order to provide the club with a constant flow of extra income.
