Following the massive spending to upgrade the venue, Madrid now plans to maximise their revenue from the new facilities. The club get paid for renting their stadium to the NFL, while they also get a small share of the ticket sales.
From the NFL's point of view, this is another step to increase the game's popularity internationally. This is the final NFL game that will be hosted outside the United States of America. Earlier NFL had hosted matches in Sao Paulo, Dublin, London (which hosted three games) and Berlin.
For the Dolphins, Miami has 66 percent Spanish-speaking residents and thus, culturally, it made sense to play a match at the Spanish capital. Dolphins' vice president of international development, Felipe Formiga told The Athletic: "A fantastic opportunity to grow the sport and do so in a city that has so many similarities to Miami."
While Los Blancos hoped that the entire event would revolve around Bernabeu and the club, their city rivals, Atletico Madrid, silently struck a deal with the Dolphins to host them at their Metropolitano Stadium throughout the week, building up to the game. The NFL side reached Atletico's set-up earlier this week and then trained at their facilities, taking advantage of the international break. Several representatives of Atletico, including manager Diego Simeone, went to meet the Dolphins squad and the Argentine manager even gifted a jersey to the NFL coach.
Madrid chief Florentino Perez's camp made every effort to block the arrangement, but he strong relationship between Atletico and the Dolphins prevailed.
