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The Almighty Buck Businesses United States Games

Comcast To Spend $50 Million To Create the Nation's First Video Gaming Arena (philly.com) 63

Posted by BeauHD from the first-of-its-kind dept.
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.
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Comcast To Spend $50 Million To Create the Nation's First Video Gaming Arena More

Comcast To Spend $50 Million To Create the Nation's First Video Gaming Arena

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  • Not first (Score:3)

    by h4x0t ( 1245872 ) on Monday March 25, 2019 @04:57PM (#58333202) Homepage
    There's been an MLG arena in Columbus Ohio for years.

    https://www.tomshardware.com/n... [tomshardware.com]

    Shoot, they are building another $10M one as well as part of some $2B larger complex.

    https://esportsobserver.com/pl... [esportsobserver.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dissy ( 172727 )

      There's been an MLG arena in Columbus Ohio for years.

      As someone from Columbus, even our MLG arena wasn't the first.
      The Nexon Arena in South Korea is also dedicated to gaming and beat us by almost 2 years, opening the end of 2013.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexon_Arena [wikipedia.org]

      Even at the time the Nexon Arena made a big deal branding themselves as the first stadium dedicated to esports built by a game developer

      I never bothered to look into it but that makes it sound like they weren't the first either if you drop the "by a game developer" qualifier.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      They are not building a sports arena they are building an advertising platform by the false claims of surging popularity, to attempt to suck in the gaming community to brainlessly watch their 'sporting content' whilst doing nothing but consuming, manipulative and choice distorting content, ads on top of ads on top of ads. Ads between content, ads in the content and the content itself another ad and more ads for the sponsor and the nothings purporting to be celebrity sporting stars, just walking sandwich boa

  • Past Peak (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Luthair ( 847766 ) on Monday March 25, 2019 @04:59PM (#58333210)

    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.

    • 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 [arstechnica.com] from Comcast?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jon3k ( 691256 )

      We're already past peak esports, league, dota2, etc. are all on the decline

      Do you have stats for this? Genuinely curious, I have no idea.

      the large publishers have all stopped the "we esports" part of PR for every new title (the new fad is game as a service).

      Do you think that's because it is just understood at this point because it is a competitive game? Maybe we just don't need the moniker anymore? Again, I don't know, I'm not a gamer.

      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.

      This is actually a really great point, but, it only seats 3,500 people. So it's not like they're building a 50,000 seat football stadium. And I wonder if they'll have other uses for it?

    • "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."

      This. I'm unclear how an 'eSports arena' differs from 'a big auditorium' or 'one end of a basketball court'. Both of those are available in many cities.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ranbot ( 2648297 )

      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.

      You only needed read the summary to see they will use the space to host other special events, TED talks, concerts, etc.

    • Fortnite is already dead gramps, you just haven't caught up it's all Apex Legends now.

  • Better Headline (Score:5, Funny)

    by bistromath007 ( 1253428 ) on Monday March 25, 2019 @05:05PM (#58333234)
    Comcast to Flush $50 Million Down a Toilet to Avoid Spending it on Infrastructure

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by bob4u2c ( 73467 )
      +1

      Where are my mod points from Friday!
    • $50 million doesn't go very far on infrastructure. The local Time Warner office (that's now a Comcast office) we built years ago cost that much. The equipment in the headend is well over $800 million. $50 million is a drop in the bucket and wouldn't do much to upgrade things.
      • You know all that municipal broadband that's not happening because of the telecoms' dumbass lobbying? That's not exactly being considered in places with billion dollar budgets.
  • 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. =)

  • Wait, let me get this straight (Score:5, Insightful)

    by WillAffleckUW ( 858324 ) on Monday March 25, 2019 @05:19PM (#58333292) Homepage Journal

    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)

    • Low Latency FTW!

    • That's pretty much why I stopped going to concerts except for the pizza. That and having to choose between drinking or being able to drive myself home.

      Somehow they still sell out.

      But then a strange phenomenon happened. Everyone who goes to these concerts or games now whips out their cell phones so they an watch it on a small screen or play Candy Crush while they watch people play whatever it is they're playing.

  • 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.

  • I live in Philly a few blocks from the other gaming arena called Localhost. https://localhost.gg/ [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.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ranbot ( 2648297 )

      Yeah, I think there's enough interest to make this work in Philly (I live in the area, Philly 'burbs). Particularly, if the venue fills in the calendar with other non-gaming events. Heck, if they aired the Eagles games there live, I bet many folks would go tailgate, and watch at Fusion in the same parking lot for a better view of the game than seats at the Linc.

      Relatedly, I bet there are musicians who would want to take advantage of the visual potential of a small/intimate venue filled with screens. There's

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