A new stadium in Arlington, Texas, suggests the move from big box store to video game venue may be coming to a city near you In Texas, sports stadiums are king. From the Dallas Cowboys? massive pro football mecca?complete with one of the world?s largest television screens?to the high school football fields that put the homes of many pro sports teams to shame, few places have such a history of pushing the limits of stadium design.
A new development in Arlington, the country?s largest purpose-built esports stadium, shows that Texas may be host to part of the next evolution of sporting arenas. The $10 million Esports Stadium Arlington, set to open this November in the city?s Entertainment District, will see the city?s convention center converted into a competition arena, esports gallery, and production studio. And this is just the beginning. According to a report in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the global esports market will more than triple from $493 million in 2017 to $1.5 billion in 2020, and a recent ESPN story chronicled the growth of the industry in Dallas-Fort Worth, where more than $105 million has been invested in teams, leagues, and venues.
Big events for games such as League of Legends, one of a number of popular multiplayer online battle arena video games, have taken place at venues such as the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Staples Center in Los Angeles, and New York?s Madison Square Garden, where players square off at center court, with gameplay broadcast...