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Comcast To Spend $50 Million To Create the Nation's First Video Gaming Arena (philly.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Philly: Comcast Spectacor, which owns the Flyers, is to announce Monday morning that it will construct the first arena for gaming fans in the U.S. for the Comcast-owned Fusion, company officials say. The $50 million project is a testament to the surging popularity of esports, in which players compete in video games before large crowds. The company plans to break ground this summer on part of the 47-acre stadium complex site that Comcast Spectacor leases in South Philadelphia. The 3,500-seat arena will rise on a parking lot, next to Xfinity Live! and within walking distance of the Linc, Citizens Bank Park, and the Wells Fargo Center.
Nate Nanzer, commissioner of the 20-team Overwatch League, said there has never been a special-purpose esports arena "built anywhere. This is a huge step for esports. This is something we will see pop up all over the world." Besides housing Comcast's Fusion, one of the Overwatch League's teams, the venue is planned to be a major east coast hub for gaming events, company executives said. Comcast Spectacor expects to hold about 120 events a year in the new arena, with other gigs ranging from TED Talks to electronic dance music and K-pop concerts. K-pop is a music genre from South Korea that is popular with Fusion fans, Comcast Spectacor officials said. The Fusion Arena is looking to sell naming rights to the venue.
Nate Nanzer, commissioner of the 20-team Overwatch League, said there has never been a special-purpose esports arena "built anywhere. This is a huge step for esports. This is something we will see pop up all over the world." Besides housing Comcast's Fusion, one of the Overwatch League's teams, the venue is planned to be a major east coast hub for gaming events, company executives said. Comcast Spectacor expects to hold about 120 events a year in the new arena, with other gigs ranging from TED Talks to electronic dance music and K-pop concerts. K-pop is a music genre from South Korea that is popular with Fusion fans, Comcast Spectacor officials said. The Fusion Arena is looking to sell naming rights to the venue.
booyah
Atlanta 2016, among others - https://www.eleague.com/news/state-of-the-art-tournament-facility
Did Putin order this from the Kremlin?
who would go to an arena to watch a bunch of people sit at computers (or worse, consoles) and play video games while some announcer babbles incoherently over a mic?
There's been an MLG arena in Columbus Ohio for years.
https://www.tomshardware.com/n...
Shoot, they are building another $10M one as well as part of some $2B larger complex.
https://esportsobserver.com/pl...
We're already past peak esports, league, dota2, etc. are all on the decline and the large publishers have all stopped the "we esports" part of PR for every new title (the new fad is game as a service). Fortnite isn't an esport, the audience there is for individual streamers not the high level competitive aspect (the game doesn't even have skill based matchmaking).
Its also generally questionable about whether it makes financial sense to have a dedicated space, notice how many professional teams share buildings, and rent them out to concerts.
Comcast to Flush $50 Million Down a Toilet to Avoid Spending it on Infrastructure
NO evidence of COLLUSION.
the large publishers have all stopped the "we esports" part of PR for every new title
Which raises another question: How do Comcast and participating players plan to handle cases where a video game publisher withdraws copyright permission to stream matches of the publisher's game from Comcast?
The e-Sports competitors and crowd will look GREAT on TV in 2020. By 2040, 10% have died of heart attacks, and the remaining 90% are fat blobs who need to be wheeled around in a - self-driving - electric wheelchair. =)
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
So, you seriously want me to get off my couch, where beer is like $1 and pizza is like $8, get in a car which most millenials don't even have, drive in congested roads for like a couple of hours (usually a 30 minute drive), pay $20 to $40 for parking, still have to walk 10 blocks in the rain, get barcoded and scanned while waiting in another 30 minute line, to then pay $20 easy for like 1 beer and a hotdog, all to be crowded into a box where I can't see anything, and you think I want to do that?
Seriously?
(this has been Seriously with Will and Amy)
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
You're better off renting a movie theater to sell tickets. Or just skip the whole thing because no one really wants to gather to watch someone play video games. That's tres 1980's when someone gets to level 30 in Pac-Man.
In the 1980s, we called these "video game arcades ". A typical example was the arcade portrayed in TRON:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07Upyd9EVog
The big telecom companies are spending their money on assets outside of their core competency. That tends to produce loses. The dumb pipe companies have said they don't want to be dumb pipe, but they should stay dumb pipe, or else, time to regulate those bastards.
high tech game place in south philly?
and naggers have destroyed it in 3...2...1...
bet
Just thinking about the less than utilized Astrodome. It seats far more than the proposed Spectacor, but what a kick to be able to host gaming team competitions in the "8th Wonder of the World" in the nation's 4th largest city. It is of course the world's first domed stadium, where Baseball, Football, Rodeo, Automobile Thrill shows and Destruction Derbies were housed for decades. Just about every esport has been played there for realz. Seems a pretty good fit. Probably impractical, but well...yeah. LOL
I remember 10-15 years ago, I'd spend an hour or two to get my ping count down by 10 ms. With the PS3, nor the PS4, that's not an option. Given my experience that low ping count yields better K/D ratios, why would anyone want to play these streamed games? Seems clear to me, the folks with the most $$$ will have the better internet and thus will dominate.
That's basically what porn is, isn't it? With the addition of chicks (usually)?
Isn't that also the appeal of pro wrestling?
For that matter, what is boxing and MMA?
Spend some money to remove the 'need' your data caps maybe first?
Where's the fun in watching? Doing, si, watching, caca.
I live in Philly a few blocks from the other gaming arena called Localhost. https://localhost.gg/
They are usually packed on the weekends. Think a LAN center that turns into a place where people can come and watch on a giant projector. They have already hosted many events.
Sadly the space is out of the way, has little parking, and can only comfortably hold about 100 people. I'm not surprised that Comcast wanted a bigger space.
For people to buy keys to open at this place?
Do they not know streaming exists? This is stupid beyond belief.
Lost in the dtails is that $40M of the cost will be for the ventilation system to deal with the crowd's smell.