Santiago Bernabéu Stadium Renovation Advisor Carlos Carrión Joins African Collaborations Group (ACG) Advisory Board to Advance Sport and Entertainment Districts Across Africa

African Collaborations Group (ACG) (www.ACGafrica.com), the leading strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on the industrialisation of sport in Africa through the origination of bankable sport and entertainment district ecosystems, today announced the appointment of Carlos Carrión to its Advisory Board.

Mr Carrión is Partner and Director of Sports & Entertainment at Senn Ferrero, one of the world's leading advisory firms in sports and entertainment. He also serves as External Advisor to a top-tier European football club, a role he has held since 2018, and brings more than 30 years of professional experience across four continents in the design, business modelling, financing, operation and commercialisation of sport and entertainment venues, having worked at senior level in both multinational corporations and international advisory.

Mr Carrión played a central advisory role in the €600 million redevelopment of the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, one of the most ambitious stadium transformations of the modern era. The Bernabéu redevelopment redefined what a 21st-century venue can be: an integrated, mixed-use, digitally-enabled facility engineered to generate revenue both on match and non-match days, and designed around mobility, transport, payment and socio-economic data streams that shaped its facility design, operating model and long-term commercial performance. Mr Carrión's work on the project drew on a career-long study of over 300 venues worldwide, and hands-on advisory work with more than a dozen of them across three continents.

His broader career combines senior positions as head of marketing and sponsorships for globally recognised brands in telecommunications and banking, participation in the international development team of one of Europe's most prominent football clubs, and consulting engagements across football, Formula 1, MotoGP, Formula E, basketball and other major sport properties. He holds a degree from IE (Instituto de Empresa) and brings a strong marketing, corporate communications, finance and business development background to his advisory work.

His appointment to the ACG Advisory Board brings to the platform the world's most current and directly relevant expertise on the design, financing and business modelling of large-scale, mixed-use sport and entertainment venues — the very ecosystem logic that ACG is applying at district scale across the African continent. Where the Santiago Bernabéu has become the reference for what a modern, data-driven, revenue-diversified urban sport venue can be, ACG is originating the equivalent thinking at district scale for African markets: not single venues, but integrated, mixed-use, financially sustainable ecosystems that generate value across match, non-match, entertainment, hospitality, retail and community uses.

His appointment brings to the ACG Advisory Board an exceptional combination of venue design and operational expertise, deep experience across four continents and multiple sport properties, hands-on advisory to some of the most valuable sport organisations in the world, and a proven track record on one of the most significant venue redevelopment projects of the past decade — capabilities directly relevant to originating and structuring large-scale sport and entertainment district projects across the African continent.

"Carlos Carrión brings to our Advisory Board a genuinely rare capability: the current, hands-on expertise of building the world's most advanced sport venue ecosystem. The Santiago Bernabéu redevelopment is the reference project for what a 21st-century venue and its business model can be, and the doctrine that shaped it — mixed use, data-driven, revenue-diversified, designed for match and non-match days alike — is exactly the doctrine ACG is applying at district scale across the African continent. His presence on our Advisory Board significantly strengthens ACG's technical, commercial and design capabilities as we originate bankable district ecosystems in African markets," said Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard (www.Pompigne-Mognard.com), Founder and Executive Chairman of ACG.

The ACG Advisory Board provides strategic guidance as ACG originates and structures large-scale sport and entertainment district projects across the continent, aligning governments, development finance institutions (DFIs), investors, sport bodies and infrastructure partners to support the development of financially sustainable, mixed-use district ecosystems.

Africa's sport economy is projected to reach $20 billion by 2035, yet the continent continues to lack the integrated district ecosystems required to support large-scale development. ACG addresses this gap by originating bankable sport and entertainment district projects, moving beyond single-venue development models towards mixed-use, revenue-generating and financially sustainable district ecosystems.

Through its collaborative model, ACG convenes governments, PPP authorities and regulators, development finance institutions, private investors, developers, designers and engineers, legal and transaction advisors, operators, sport federations and leagues, event promoters, media and broadcast partners, academic institutions and host communities, creating structured pathways from concept to feasibility, bankability and delivery.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Collaborations Group (ACG).

Media contact:
marie@apo-opa.com

About African Collaborations Group (ACG):
African Collaborations Group (ACG) (www.ACGafrica.com) is the leading strategic project origination and collaboration platform focused on the industrialisation of sport in Africa through the origination of bankable sport and entertainment district ecosystems. By convening governments, private-sector partners, development finance institutions, sport and entertainment stakeholders, and academic institutions, ACG creates structured pathways that transform concepts into investable and deliverable district projects across the continent.