Some of the brightest minds in North Texas are gathering in Fort Worth this week to discuss the future of esports and gaming.
Esports are expected to become a major part of the global economy with North Texas hoping to rise to the American forefront in the sport. The forum on esports will be held at Global Entrepreneurship Week.
“Here in America, we are finally accepting the fact that digital gaming makes a lot of money and brings a lot of people together,” forum moderator Nancy Coblenz, CEO of Rebel Role Model said. “It’s time that we finally have our stadium to call home and not borrow someone else’s stadium.”
Arlington is getting ready to open the $10 million Esports Stadium on Nov. 24, which will be the largest of its kind in North America at 100,000-square-feet.
“In Arlington, we are actually putting esports as a national spotlight,” Coblenz said. "We are stealing a lot of the thunder for gaming and professional gaming here in America.”
The arena will bring spectators for esports events and productions, and become a mainstay for the economy.
“Quite honestly we are already behind in the times because already South Korea, China, Japan [and] even in Europe – this is the soccer of the digital world,” Coblenz said. “We are already around five to seven years behind so we have a lot of catching up to do very quickly.”
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Organizers believe the new arena will put North Texas in the center of the conversation and the road to American esports could run through North Texas.
“For this to actually crossover into a traditional sport in the next 10 years, we really need to have the adoption of the larger consumers and the older generations to believe in what we are doing and believe in where this is all going as an emerging technology,” Coblenz said.
