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Washington DC to build an esports arena

NRG Esports will be sponsored by the company building it.

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With e sports becoming increasingly popular throughout the world, its only natural that the capital city of the US is making a push into the ever expanding world of competitive gaming.

Events DC chairman Max Brown, the man in charge of all conventions, sports, and entertainment in Washington, recently told Mashable that a new esports stadium worth approximately $65 million USD, which can seat 4,200 people, is being constructed for the purpose of esports.

NRG Esports, which has teams for games such as Hearthstone and CS:GO is to be sponsored by Events DC too, which surely isn't a bad deal for the team, what with this big investment from Events DC and all.

"We have a bunch of universities here in Washington," Brown said. "There are lots of younger kids who are here and are coming here every year through our universities so we think it makes a lot of sense for us as a city to plant a flag [for esports], and ultimately be the capital of esports like we're the capital of the United States."

NRG Esports' co-founder Andy Miller also commented on the stadium, saying: "These events sell out in two seconds, you need to travel, you need to spend good money and they're big and they're fun and they're super cool but it's not like, 'I want to go watch my team play this weekend, head down and check them out at the local arena,'" Miller said. "That just doesn't happen in esports, and that's something that's missing when you want to have a real connection with an organization and with players."

Miller also discussed the sponsorship too: "We're really excited about it," he said. "I think it's definitely a first for esports and a great validation of NRG but also the esports space and how big and interesting it's becoming to the point that now you have really forward-thinking folks like Events DC taking a look and actually wading into the waters here and putting time and money behind it."

"We're not the DC NRG," Miller clarified. "But we will be spending a bunch of time down there, we will definitely be bootcamping down there... and then hopefully we can bring real big events across all the different leagues and games that we play in to DC. so that people can actually go and watch them."

"There's no reason why it shouldn't be Washington DC. against New York, or Boston against LA and see these rivalries developing," he added. "And we have our own rivalries in different games that we play with different organisations but it would be really neat if it was city-based as well."

Miller was also asked whether this meant NRG could represent the city in the Overwatch League, which will be city-based: "One — we want to make sure we're in the Overwatch League," he said, noting that the league's teams have yet to be decided. "Two — if it's Washington DC, that would be great. We have a wonderfully exciting team that we want to keep together and we want to keep growing and we have a fanbase and we've been in it for a while and we've been carrying the torch for Overwatch for a while now. I do think this [sponsorship] is a validation for the city-based approach that they're trying to put together."

The Washington DC stadium should be completed in late 2018 or early 2019. Is this a prime location to build an esports stadium?

Washington DC to build an esports arena
Photo: Washington.org


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