by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

A company in Orange County has announced plans to construct an eSports arena, the first of its kind in North America.  This is also the first of several planned eSports venues, which will provide facilities and equipment for eSports and other entertainment events.

eSports Arena is a brand new venture that has been three years in the making. A live studio to help the community host tournaments and events, is getting ready to open its doors. This is the first of many planned locations to create stable, dedicated, and permanent facilities for eSports to take place.

According to their website they will be able to offer:

• 1000 square foot stage
• PC’s and consoles for open bracket events
• Fiber-optic internet
• Full audio and lighting
• Broadcast quality multi-camera equipment
• Casting areas
• Retail/Branding space

We had a few questions, and thankfully were able to get some of them answered by their CEO, Paul Ward:

How are you guys getting funded?
We’re fully funded, investor information can’t be disclosed just yet though.

How do you expect to make money?
Ahh, good question! Our basic concept (from a business perspective) is that we can operate as a traditional venue, a broadcast studio, and a dedicated competitive video game facility that anyone can participate in. Everything has been designed to be modular in order to best serve the wide range of events.

What tournaments and/or events are lined up to be at the studio?
Wildly unsatisfying answer: We’re partnering with publishers, lifestyle brands, established esports organizations, and grassroots organizations to develop regular content and events. We’ll be announcing these partnerships shortly.

How large is the studio?
Our arena space is 13,500 square feet including a mezzanine. We also have a backend control room and studio space.

Is it completed?
Construction/remodeling started in October 2013, and is now almost done. Our next video will focus on the actual facility and it’s capabilities.

What games are you expecting to be able to run?
We’re very happy with our interactions with publishers, so the sky is the limit.

Are you or other tournament organizers coming in to run the events?
Like I mentioned before we’re working with established organizations and grassroots groups, we will be facilitating community driven content and events.

What kind of production equipment is available at the facilities?
We have a full range of broadcast equipment including audio, lighting, cameras, etc. A group can bring their own equipment or use ours.

Are you just facilitating the events or looking to run some yourself?
We will mostly facilitate these events but occasionally produce our own.

While few details are available at this time, we are looking forward to hearing when the first event or tournament can make use of these promising facilities. Supporting the grassroot initiatives I think is key in moving eSports forward and helping it grow, and it’s great to see a company with that in mind. We will follow with more information as it is released!

More information about the arena itself can be found at esportsarena.com.

The full press release is below:

eSports Arena today announced the opening of North America’s first dedicated eSports facility. The Arena is a 13,500 square foot facility launching this spring and is located in downtown Orange County, California.

eSports Arena is positioning itself to be massively disruptive in the surging eSports industry. eSports Arena’s unique modular facility allows for small to large scale highly produced eSports and entertainment events. eSports Arena will also host daily video game competition, produce unique digital content, and rent space/equipment to the eSports/interactive entertainment industry at a fraction of the cost of traditional venues.

“eSports Arena is what we wished we had while in high school and college,” said co-founder and COO Tyler Endres. “There’s nothing better than live competition and interaction.”
For the past 3 years eSports Arena has quietly been planning and setting in motion the opening of these Arenas in major North American markets. By the end of 2014 three additional Arenas will be open.

This network of Arenas will create regular highly produced eSports and entertainment content on a daily basis. These Arenas will be capable of building and sustaining audiences over an extended period of time allowing the eSports world to have consistent national events and competitions on any title – any time.

These Arenas will be fusing lifestyle brands, music, and art with the eSports demographic. eSports Arena is set to be the bridge for eSports into the mainstream entertainment ecosystem.
eSports Arena takes pride in its ability to be radically responsive to literally every gaming community. eSports Arena will help facilitate community driven and crowd funded events that will bring the spotlight to every community that is willing – not just the chosen few. Founder and CEO Paul Ward says, “We’re not building our business around CPM and click-through rates, we’re building our business around how to best serve the eSports and gaming communities.”