Juan Iraola is the revolutionary

After ten days, Real Sociedad leads the league table. Competitors Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are already a bit distant. From a sporting point of view, the team of coach Imanol Alguacil in Spain hails from above. The club has long since escaped the competition and is a European pioneer in the digital sector.

With Juan Iraola, a revolutionary made the club fly past all other teams. He is the club’s digital director and has turned almost everything upside down since he took office in 2016.

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The Donostia-born “successful architect”, who preceded the wave of change in football, has been a fan of San Sebastian himself since childhood. One of his sons went through the club’s youth academy. The other two children are also big fans of the bianconeri. “When I go to the stadium on a weekend they always say, ‘Wow, Aita, how lucky they are.’ And they’re right. I don’t feel like my job is like a job, it’s actually a privilege.”

Anoeta stadium equipped with modern technologies

The Anoeta stadium is an important place for digitization. In 2015, shortly after the renovation permit, Iraola joined the club. Meanwhile, the old grandstands have been demolished, the Scottish track removed and the capacity increased to 42,300 seats. But much more important for the revolutionary: the arena was equipped with the latest technology.

Thanks to Iraola and the “Realzale” app developed by him and his team, fans have more options during a match. They can enter the field digitally using their mobile phone, walk through the booth, view exclusive articles and videos, receive offers from the online shop tailored to the individual and receive offers of food and drinks. You can also vote for substitutions and win matches with club legends. WiFi is available throughout the stadium.

However, the digitalization of the stadium, which Iraola enters every day before the start of the duty to visit through the players’ tunnel, is only part of the great wave of renovations. The creator and his six employees have started about 40 projects since 2016. “We had to question almost everything to make everything better,” Iraola said. The pioneer started very simply. “Some employees found that the computers were a bit slow,” the father of the family said.

Iraola enriches the club

Behind the innovation plans is the drive to multiply the club’s revenue. In the four years under Iraola, for example, the expansion and redesign of the online store led to sales growth of over 80%.

Now the wave continues. The club’s YouTube channel needs to be monetized. Interviews are held with companies and brands so that they can advertise in the Realzale app. App users should therefore receive lower prices from these providers. In the near future, a video platform will also be created, on which club content can be viewed.

San Sebastian leads the alliance for digitization

Meanwhile, San Sebastian has brought more professional teams on board as part of the “Sport Innovation Alliance”. In November 2019, the Spaniards took the lead in the community of 22 teams from 21 different countries. Members include Cagliari from Italy and Feyenoord Rotterdam from the Netherlands.

They want to work together to develop innovations to improve the economic and digital structure of individual teams. “We meet every two weeks and sometimes even every week. When the pandemic is over, the goal is to hold a conference in another country every six months to share knowledge and create synergies,” Iraola said.

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In any case, he himself wants to continue working with all his might to ensure that his club, which he cares about, continues to outperform the competition. After all, Iraola has long fought for her dream job. In 2008, he knocked on the club’s door for the first time. At that time he had offered San Sebastian an internal communication system and was rejected.

Iraola: revolutionary with tenacity

The revolutionary, however, showed perseverance and came back year after year with new ideas to the Spanish first division team – and also asked other clubs. As a reward for his tenacity, Real Sociedad’s board of directors finally proposed in 2016 to lead the field of digitization and also to reform all departments of the organization.

Iraola didn’t have to think twice and completely overturned the two-time champion. Thanks to him, viewers experience the table leader’s games very differently than he did as a child.