Global Fútbol

Real Sporting Gijón has been carrying out unique activities and events at the El Molinón - Enrique Castro Quini stadium for some time, increasing its use far beyond the matchday.

As well as its official tour, the club offers other initiatives such as the Espacio Quini by Caja Rural de Gijón, a museum dedicated to the legendary striker Quini. There are also guided tours led by club veterans, birthday parties for children, an on-pitch events and catering service called El Córner del Templo and photo sessions for weddings. The club’s latest initiative, to create an escape room inside the stadium has created new commercial potential as well as press headlines.

“In looking to give further life to the stadium, one idea was to organise a classic scavenger hunt, yet it didn’t turn out to be that attractive and it was too focused on children,” the club stated. “We knew that we had to overhaul the concept and this is where the idea for creating an escape room, or an escape stadium, came from. It’s a much more current idea and one that appeals to everyone.”

Working with Baker Street Gijón, a local business that has already created popular escape rooms across the region, the club began creating the first escape room inside a football stadium. “We told them our plan and they loved the idea, so it didn’t take long to reach an arrangement to work together on the escape stadium concept,” the club added.

Discovering unique corners of the stadium

Visitors who attend the new escape room, named ‘Real Sporting Gijón and the Lost Relics’, will have the opportunity to go behind the scenes of the club and access areas of the stadium that aren’t usually accessible to the public, such as the dressing rooms, the physio room or the press room.”

Offering further insight into what the escape room challenges contain, the club said: “Visitors have to decipher clues and solve challenges through trial and error, but also with the use of some technology. One of the elements we think is very positive is that it’s not essential to know about football or about Real Sporting Gijón to solve the clues.”

Those who do follow the club will find exclusive new content from former Real Sporting Gijón players such as David Villa or Luis Enrique, who have collaborated through videos that enrich the activities.

The escape room is currently set up for Spanish speakers, although the club are working to make the activity available in English in the coming weeks, to capture the attention of tourists.

Receiving global headlines

Upon announcing the idea, the club saw the story picked up by international media while public response has been overwhelmingly positive. “It has been very positive to be mentioned in international publications, it shows that we had a unique idea,” the club said. “The public response has also very good; bookings for weekends filled up immediately and there are also many people looking to come midweek.”

Due to the first team’s schedule and the need to keep the stadium free for potential matches, bookings can’t be made much more than two or three weeks in advance but demand has been significant. “As we opened the booking periods up a little, the midweek reservations reached very good numbers for a time when escape rooms tend to be quieter,” the club noted.

Those who have already taken part in the escape room have given positive feedback, which motivates the club to continue developing the idea further. “The challenges will keep evolving and changing over time,” the club said. “Added to the fact that there are various possible pathways when starting the challenge, this means that it wouldn’t be a problem for a group to come back and have a new adventure, knowing that they’ll encounter new mysteries.”

Long-term revenue prospects

With the pandemic having disrupted traditional revenue streams, the club’s ability to find new uses for its stadium has provided an important new commercial boost. As the health situation improves, larger groups of participants will be allowed into the escape room and more sessions will be opened up to the public, creating additional growth potential.

“The income plan that we initially had in mind has been altered because of capacity limits that are in place during this period,” the club concluded. “We expect to return to relative normality in the medium term, when will carry out more realistic studies about how we move forward.”