Philadelphia Fusion Announces a Brand-New Dedicated Esports Arena

While Activision-Blizzard’s eSports ambitions have been curtailed slightly by the fact their CEO is a selfish, self-serving buttwipe, it’s still going strong, especially for Overwatch, which is where the majority of Blizzard has staked its esports ambitions, given that the eSports world is quickly becoming big business and Overwatch is still pretty darn popular. And today, one branch of the wider Overwatch league, the Philadelphia Fusion, announced that it’s going to capitalize on that popularity by spending $50 million dollars on a next-generation eSports and entertainment venue that will seat their most ardent fans.

Yep. It’s a proper eSports arena, the second in the Western Hemisphere, apparently.

Called the Fusion Arena (appropriately enough) will sit 3,500 folks in the 60,000 square foot building, which will include 2000 square feet of what’s called an “interactive media service”, which will hang 30 feet above the entry area. There will be two balcony bars, suites, loge box seating, a dedicated training facility, team offices, and even a broadcast studio.

And don’t worry: the building won’t be used exclusively for Overwatch eSports. It’ll also host “a variety of live entertainment programming and experiences”.

The Cordish Companies had this to say about the upcoming building:

"Fusion Arena will set the gold standard for competitive gaming and debut on one of the country’s most exciting platforms of sports and entertainment amid Philadelphia’s professional sports teams… today’s announcement marks an exciting moment for the Comcast Spectacor-Cordish partnership as the next phase of Xfinity Live! continues to unfold."

Sounds exciting, I guess. The arena doesn’t have a scheduled opening date, but presumably, construction has already started or is at least far enough in the planning phase that they feel comfortable announcing it to the world. And who knows – maybe if it’s popular enough, other cities will follow suit.

Or maybe not.