Philadelphia is about to become an esports mecca for video game fans. The City of Brotherly Love will soon be the home to the largest esports arena in the western hemisphere -- the Fusion Arena. News broke of the proposed arena on the morning of March 25. Slated to open in early 2021, the arena will be the home of the Philadelphia Fusion, one of 20 international teams competing in the Overwatch League. Overwatch is a team-based first-person shooter video game from Blizzard Entertainment (the creators of World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo and more). The Fusion Arena will be situated within walking distance of Philadelphia’s other sporting venues: Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park and Wells Fargo Center. It’s slated to be located just across from Xfinity Live. The $50 million project is expected to start construction this summer. The Fusion Arena will be 60,000 square feet and seat 3,500 people. Renderings of the interior of the Fusion Arena in Philadelphia. The esports complex is expected to open in 2021. It'll be the largest of its kind in the western hemisphere. The arena will also have a dedicated training facility for Fusion players, a special advantage for the team compared to its competitors. It won’t just house Overwatch events, but also TED Talks and Korean pop music concerts. It aims to host 120 events a year. The Fusion Arena is the creation of Comcast Spectacor and the Cordish Companies. It’s being designed by Populous, the architecture firm behind the new Yankee Stadium. On entering, visitors will be greeted by a special 6,000-square-foot public entry with 2,000 square feet of interactive media surface above them. Seating options will include loge boxes, suites and club seats with their own USB ports. There will also be two balcony bars. You can learn more about the Fusion Arena at fusionarenaphilly.com. While the Fusion Arena may be the first esports-dedicated stadium of its size in the East Coast -- it won’t necessarily be the last. Esports is quickly entering the mainstream. Live streaming gaming site Twitch announced in 2018 that it was averaging more than 2 million monthly streamers and more than 15 million unique daily visitors. Professional video game teams can earn more than $18 million in prize money, according to Business Insider. In the Overwatch League specifically, professional players earn a minimum of $50,000 a year -- as well as receive health insurance. Adding in prize money potential, TechCrunch.com estimates that a player could earn as much as $750,000 in a year. Harrisburg has two professional esports teams in its city borders as well. The Susquehanna Soniqs, part of Susquehanna Esports, have a team that specializes in the Rainbow Six Siege game and another that competes in the Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds game. Harrisburg University of Science and Technology has its own collegiate esports team as well -- the HU Storm. The esports program at Harrisburg University is ranked the fourth best in the country for the game “League of Legends.” The university also hosts the PA Cup, a statewide esports tournament. The first-ever PA Cup will take place on March 30 and 31 at the Whitaker Center. The March 31 event is open to the public. Tickets are free, but it’s a good idea to register for them advance at the tournament’s Eventbrite page.<doc-sep>Comcast Spector and The Cordish Companies plan to build a $50 million arena for the Philadelphia Fusion, an esports team in the Overwatch League. The Fusion Arena will be located in the center of the Philadelphia Sports Complex, adjacent to the city's NBA, NFL, and MLB venues. The venue will span 60,000 square feet and seat 3,500 guests in the main arena; the Philadelphia Fusion training facility, broadcast studio and team offices will be housed in the arena as well. An esports team will soon have their very own $50 million arena in the heart of the Philadelphia Sports Complex, based on a proposal announced today by Comcast Spectacor and The Cordish Companies. Comcast wants to build the arena to house the Philadelphia Fusion, the team they built to compete in the Overwatch League. The new venue, Fusion Arena, will span 60,000 square feet and seat up to 3,5000 guests. Comcast expects Fusion Arena to host a variety of live entertainment as well as competitive gaming events. Fusion Arena will be directly ajacent to the Xfinity Live! complex and will sit between the Philadelphia's MLB, NBA, and NFL stadiums. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer.<doc-sep>By Zane Bhansali Comcast Spectacor and The Cordish Companies announced plans on Monday for a $50 million esports and entertainment venue to be built from the ground up in the Philadelphia Sports Complex. The new venue, to be called "Fusion Arena," will seat up to 3,500 guests, making it the largest new-construction purpose-built esports arena in the Western Hemisphere. The arena's name is derived from the Philadelphia Fusion esports franchise owned by Spectacor, which currently competes as one of the 20 international teams in Activision-Blizzard's Overwatch League. Overwatch League launched its city-based franchise in 2017 with the promise that by 2020, teams would travel between home cities for matches. League commissioner Nate Nanzer recently confirmed during an ESPN Esports panel at South by Southwest that this plan would come to fruition next year. The announcement of Fusion Arena is one of the first tangible steps toward that reality, and toward a potential esports landscape that mobilizes regional allegiances for fan engagement. In an interview with Cheddar Sports' Jimmy Mondal, Spectacor Gaming and Philadelphia Fusion President Tucker Roberts emphasized the strength of connecting to a regional identity. "This is going to be, I hope, one of those venues that in fifty years when they blow it up, people want the seats because they had such great memories there watching the Fusion and other esports teams play," he said. "That's the power of having a home when you're a team. It's somewhere where the fans can really latch on and feel like they're at home too. "It's a really big occasion for us and the city of Philadelphia," he added. For local Philadelphians, the journey to Fusion Arena will be a familiar one. Its placement in the Philadelphia Sports Complex puts it directly next to Lincoln Financial Field, Citizens Bank Park, and the Spectacor-owned Wells Fargo Center, the homes of the Eagles, the Phillies, the 76ers, and the Flyers (also owned by Comcast Spectacor). "I think it's a great step for us as far as legitimacy goes, for esports being there with all the other traditional sports is great," Roberts told Cheddar Esports. In addition, the Sports Complex has already proven itself an attractive location for potential esports viewership. Roberts said the Fusion's watch parties for the Overwatch League playoffs last year at Xfinity Live!, the entertainment complex also housed in the Sports Complex, made it clear that South Philadelphia was the most convenient location for Philadelphians. "I think the location's great," Roberts commented. "People are used to going to see a Flyers game down there and now you can go and see a Fusion game there as well." The arena itself will be a striking addition to the sports complex. Promotional video for the arena showcases an eye-catching geometric design skinned in brushed gunmetal black and neon orange, the Philadelphia Fusion's signature combo. Plans for the interior reveal a layout catered to esports ー the entryway will feature a 2,000 square foot LED screen 30 feet in the air showcasing interactive media, and the bowl itself, splashed in the same orange light, is an apparent hybrid of packed concert arena and traditional baseball diamond. The arena's list of promised features also point to a desire to merge gaming and traditional sports audiences. They include club seats with USB ports and exclusive suites like those one would find at an Eagles game. "It's supposed to be sort of jaw-dropping," Roberts said. "It's supposed to be like the most hype EDM concert you've ever been to, but you're watching Carpe pop off," he quipped, referring to the Fusion's star DPS player Jae-hyeok "Carpe" Lee. "We were trying to find something that would fit in with the aesthetic of the sports complex but definitely be unique to the gaming scene," said Spectacor Gaming and Philadelphia Fusion CBO Joe Marsh. That design comes attached to a lofty pedigree ー Fusion Arena is designed by Populous, the architecture firm which has previously designed arenas such as the new Yankee Stadium, the San Francisco Giants' Oracle Park, and the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games venue. "You walk into the inner bowl and it just kind of has that arena feel with the large LED screen on the wall," Marsh said of the venue's design. "Having the traditional seating elements inside an arena, with premium options as well as general seats ー that was kind of a big deal. We designed the space to feel gritty... we really wanted it to feel like what our fans would want and not just feel like a spaceship. Even the training space ー it took a lot of time to design the team training space." That training space ー nearly 10,000 square feet ー is perhaps the most exciting amenity included in the plans. While the Fusion currently live and practice in a massive Los Angeles manor with its own practice space, personal chef, and pool, Roberts is confident that this training space will be of a heretofore unseen caliber. The arena isn't just intended to be an event space ー it's also meant to be a home for the team that will accelerate their play to a new level. "It's going to be up there with what you'd expect from a professional athlete in traditional sports to receive. On top of that, it's not just sweet space and computers. It's streaming rooms, it's VOD review rooms, it's food and beverage... it's going to take away all of the other issues that you would have to worry about so that you can just focus on the game and focus on teamwork and getting better," Roberts told Cheddar Esports. "This is going to be, I think, the best training facility for esports in the world bar none." Construction on Fusion Arena is planned to start this summer.<doc-sep>
This article is brought to you by StatBanana, the best Overwatch strategy tool. The Overwatch League team Philadelphia Fusion is set to build a $50 million arena to host its league matches starting in 2021, Cordish Cos. and entertainment company Comcast Spectacor revealed today. The stadium will be called Fusion Arena and is set to host up to 3,500 spectators. It will be located in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex, where Philadelphia’s football, hockey, baseball, and basketball teams play in North American leagues like the NFL and the NBA. The Fusion Arena will have an entrance lobby, Fusion’s training center, and a complete structure for live broadcasts in 60,000 square feet, reportedly the “largest new-construction esports arena in the Western Hemisphere.” This is the new home of the Philadelphia @Fusion. The $50 million "Fusion Arena" will seat 3,500 and be located in the heart of the Philadelphia Sports Complex. pic.twitter.com/rg4ZIL1Kw6 — Cheddar Esports (@CheddarEsports) March 25, 2019 The Fusion played in the grand finals of the inaugural season of the Overwatch League last year, but lost to London Spitfire. In the 2019 season, the team made it to the stage one playoffs and beat Atlanta Reign by 3-1, but they were then crushed by San Francisco Shock in the semifinals. The Fusion have five wins and two losses and they sit in third place in the league. The Fusion Arena construction should begin this summer, according to both companies. Since the Overwatch League teams will begin playing their matches in home cities in the 2020 season, the Fusion will play at a temporary location until its arena is ready in 2021. Philadelphia Fusion is one of the first teams to unveil a project for an arena built exclusively for the team. Other teams are expected to reveal plans throughout the 2019 season, since teams will continue playing at the Los Angeles Blizzard Arena for now.