Tottenham to cash in on video games

[Dharmabum]

Tottenham to cash in on video games with their new stadium expected to rake in £3m per event

• Tottenham are hoping to earn up to £3million per event at their new stadium
• Spurs' executive director Donna-Maria Cullen has confirmed that the club want to bring a wide range of non- football action to their new £800m home
• The stadium, due to open next year or by 2019-20 at the latest, will include a retractable pitch to allow NFL games and concerts

By Alan Miller For The Mail On Sunday and Nick Harris for The Mail on Sunday

PUBLISHED: 22:30 BST, 13 May 2017 | UPDATED: 00:21 BST, 14 May 2017



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Tottenham are hoping to earn up to £3million per event at their new stadium by 2019 simply from staging video game tournaments.

Spurs' executive director Donna-Maria Cullen has confirmed that the club want to bring a wide range of non- football action to their new £800m home, including lucrative major eSports events.

The stadium, due to open next year or by 2019-20 at the latest, will include a retractable pitch to allow NFL games and concerts, and the club want the new White Hart Lane to become a go-to venue for eSports as the craze takes off in the UK.

'We have looked at a vision for the club and stadium,' Cullen told a sports business conference last week. 'We are bringing the NFL over here. One of the reasons was to create something more significant [than just a football club] in Tottenham, in order to kick-start the regeneration of the area.

'The sliding pitch we are installing means we will be able to host more concerts and other events. The NFL has driven up standards in our stadium. We will have new audiences coming into the stadium.

The football stadium will be available to watch eSports, which regularly attract crowds of 50-60,000 spectators in Korea and the US, and could prove to be another opportunity to monetise the structure.'

Manchester City and West Ham are among the Premier League football teams that already have eSports players on their books — people who represent the club at eSports events, playing video games.

An increasing number of sports teams from European football leagues in the Netherlands (Ajax and PSV) and Germany (Schalke) to NBA basketball teams in the USA (Philadelphia 76ers) have eSports teams, hoping to reach the hundreds of millions of fanatical video game players in the world and attract them to follow 'real' sport.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...Tottenham-cash-video-games.html#ixzz4h2iMvMak
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[Armstrong_11]

Not sure how successful eSports will be thou... Mostly it's done in indoor places with temperature control... After all very high end computers and servers are used so it could be tricky to host it in an open air arena... Somewhere with dirt and soil...

But u never know I guess.

 

[Rocksuperstar]

Not sure how successful eSports will be thou... Mostly it's done in indoor places with temperature control... After all very high end computers and servers are used so it could be tricky to host it in an open air arena... Somewhere with dirt and soil...

But u never know I guess.

On the popularity side, in places like Korea + Japan where it's a thing, it's huge. There are a few European leagues and tourneys which draw a fair crowd, but it's not really taken off like it did in Asia. Crowds in the thousands for the finals of the more popular games is feasible but the success of anything is going to be in the game - Europeans are fussy and won't accept a polished turd but once a game comes out that captures the imagination of the masses then i'm sure competition will swell in popularity.

If it does take off over here then getting in early at a construction level is a great idea, but i'm not sure if it'll be in the pitch area, even if the retractable pitch would allow for easy access for cables and stages/podiums. I expect it'll more likely be in a conference area somewhere else in the stadium - some incredibly high tech cinema room or something to start with, but have the pitch area as an option if it really takes off.

 

[Gassin's finest]

eSports are massive. I don't quite get paying to sit with thousands of others to watch some spods sit at a computer screen, but whatever floats your boat.

 

[riggi]

eSports are massive. I don't quite get paying to watch with thousands of others to watch some spods sit at a computer screen, but whatever floats your boat.

All about weird isn't it? People watch YouTube videos of other people playing games...

 

[tiger666]

All about weird isn't it? People watch YouTube videos of other people playing games...

The same as people watching football.

 

[riggi]

The same as people watching football.

Literally not.

 

[tiger666]

Literally not.

Still watching people play games. One is digital.

 

[tototoner]

Not sure how successful eSports will be thou... Mostly it's done in indoor places with temperature control... After all very high end computers and servers are used so it could be tricky to host it in an open air arena... Somewhere with dirt and soil...

But u never know I guess.

It will be indoors I would have thought

But then that article says 50000 fans to watch it, so who knows

 

[etchedchaos]

It will be indoors I would have thought

But then that article says 50000 fans to watch it, so who knows

This is from an esports event in Seoul. Yea, they do outdoor esports and they do it BIG.

 

[rabbikeane]

Not the best event to host if it rains though

 

[guiltyparty]

Stadium available for making money shocker!

 

[Gbspurs]

I have always wondered why stadiums don't make more of the match day experience. I think a full day programme with u23 matches, legends 5 a side, e-sports matches, maybe a bit of music etc would be a really good day out.

Going to watch spurs tends to mean I'm travelling for at least twice as long as I'm actually at the stadium. It would also solve the post match crush as some would stay on.

 

[kitchen]

eSports are massive. I don't quite get paying to sit with thousands of others to watch some spods sit at a computer screen, but whatever floats your boat.

Yep. It will be the next big thing at the rate it's growing. Smart move to host events at the new stadium. Very smart.