If all goes according to plan, Toronto’s sports teams will have a futuristic new home in a few years. Today, Overactive Media – the ownership group behind the Toronto Defiant of the Ear Watch League and the Call of Duty League’s Toronto Ultra – has announced plans for a new 7,000-seat venue in the city, designed to host competitive games and other events such as concerts. The building is expected to cost about $ 20 million to build and open in 2025.
The new arena will be located at Exhibition Place in Toronto, which is also home to BMO Field, where the Toronto FC football club plays. It is designed by Populous, the prolific architectural firm behind recent projects such as Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London and T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. “The design of the theater is not intended as a sports arena or an opera house, rather as a new typology that the two stand out: a modern performance venue,” leading designer Jonathan Mallie said in a statement. “The theater architecture creates a fusion of old and new.”
The planned venue is far from the first esports arena – including the existing venues Ear Watch League’s Philadelphia Fusion is also planning a smaller scale home base – but that indicates a continuing trend. Organizations and leagues are looking for new ways to make money, and spreading their efforts to just professional teams, usually through clothing and content.
But a venue like this represents something more ambitious. While esport teams will be the anchor, like a traditional sports arena, the goal is to keep the building full at night. Overactive says it plans to host more than 200 events a year, and in addition to sports and concerts, it is expected to include “major citywide events, corporate events and product launches and awards.” Meanwhile, the company says it is “already” actively in talks to attract some of the biggest esports events in the world. ‘