Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of
William Collis:office hours with the professor. As always, I'm your host,
William Collis:William, the professor Collis. And I'm super excited to do
William Collis:another deep dive on a news story that caught my eye this
William Collis:week. So which news story did I pick? Well, it's a short one.
William Collis:But it's interesting. Let's dive right in. It is the fusion
William Collis:arena, which is a dedicated esports arena in Philadelphia
William Collis:that is currently under construction, going from being a
William Collis:pure esports venue to a multipurpose venue. Now, before
William Collis:we explain why I wanted to cover the story, I want to give you a
William Collis:little bit of background about this venue. It's being
William Collis:constructed at the XFINITY live sports complex in Philadelphia.
William Collis:And it was essentially supposed to be an esports specific venue
William Collis:for the Philadelphia fusion Overwatch League team hosting
William Collis:Overwatch League games and other esports events. For about a I
William Collis:think it was a 3500 person seating capacity and
William Collis:construction did start on this facility. I think in 2019, they
William Collis:broke ground, and it had an estimated budget of about $50
William Collis:million to do the whole thing. The change what's happening is
William Collis:now this facility is going from being an esports only facility
William Collis:to a multi purpose facility. It's undergoing some redesign.
William Collis:So now it can host things like comedy tours and concerts and
William Collis:all sorts of other good stuff. So you might say, Professor, why
William Collis:did you want to cover this story? And the answer is because
William Collis:I've got a lot of questions actually about this saying, hey,
William Collis:does this mean that esports only venues are dead or a thing of
William Collis:the past or that esports can't sustain? You know, pure venues
William Collis:by themselves? This is a problem for the esports industry. In
William Collis:essence, the answer to that is unequivocally No way. This is
William Collis:just a good business decision, plain and simple. And so let's
William Collis:unpack why. So the reality is that, you know, esports doesn't
William Collis:require a whole bunch of purpose built special equipment to host
William Collis:events. You know, I am vastly simplifying here, guys. I mean,
William Collis:obviously, there are unique things you can do for an esports
William Collis:only venue to make it a better esports experience. But
William Collis:fundamentally, if you have a fast internet connection
William Collis:computers on a stage, you can host an esports event, right?
William Collis:Certainly it doesn't require the same amount of standardized
William Collis:purpose, purpose driven infrastructure as say, football,
William Collis:where you have to have so many yards and, you know, goalposts
William Collis:that are so high and you know, all of those other things are
William Collis:filled goalposts, I should say, if esports doesn't require that
William Collis:much specialized infrastructure, why would you not want to make
William Collis:your retail asset or your stadium asset more flexible?
William Collis:It's just good logical business sense. And not only that, this
William Collis:happens with traditional sports venues all the time. So I'm from
William Collis:Massachusetts, I've been to see both the LCS finals and the
William Collis:Celtics game at the TD Garden in Boston, you know, it's not
William Collis:surprising. So my review of this or my grade for this is an A
William Collis:plus. And the reason I give this story an A plus is this is not
William Collis:about esports venues being a bad idea. This is simply about
William Collis:venues that are flexible, and being able to host different
William Collis:types of content just simply being a better and more
William Collis:diversifiable asset, particularly in today's climate.
William Collis:So as I said, I love this story, I give it an A plus because now
William Collis:all this means is you can go see an Overwatch League game at the
William Collis:fusion arena and say a comedy show and that's great. That's
William Collis:exactly what we want a more sustainable business model
William Collis:underlying the esports industry. So again, a plus. I hope you
William Collis:enjoyed the story and I look forward to doing another deep
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