Creating the Expectations for an eSports Stadium

The rise in popularity of Esports took off during the pandemic, when more people stayed inside and sought other forms of entertainment. Senior Principal and Esports Director for the Americas with Populous Brian Mirakian talks with Game Changers host Katie Steinberg about the next generation of eSports facilities and the future of the market.

“The market has really rebounded in a really strong way,” said Mirakian, noting that while the pandemic caused traditional sports to stop, video game popularity only accelerated.

With Esports gaming remaining a constant throughout the pandemic, popular game styles like Battle Royale (think Fortnite) allowed different demographics to interact and engage with one another on new platforms.

“There’s a tremendous amount of growth that’s happening in many different sectors…there’s been more activity now than at any point really since we began to explore this as a market segment, going back seven, eight years,” said Mirakian.

Investment in Esports has really taken off. An Esports stadium was built in Arlington, Texas outfitted with all the necessary streaming technology but which also has multi-use ability to host Esport events and other capabilities, “You need to have a production studio environment to create the content. What that does, what that allows for is a lot of flexibility and hybridization, right? That allows you to have myriad different types of events that then you can broadcast out and reach virtual audiences as well,” explained Mirakian.

As a guest back in 2018 with Marketscale, Mirakian predicted smaller, more-close knitted venue types in the esports arena in retail-based areas, bringing ease of access to the community. While this has held true in some instances, there is also a large proliferation of Esport activities on higher education campuses, “There’s a lot of facility types now that are beginning to originate at the college level,” noted Mirakian.

On the other hand, Las Vegas will be home to a premier esports venue next year, “which will be home to all entertainment” at a much larger scale.

More Stories Like This:

Eric Dickerson Turns His Toughest Career Moments into Lessons for the Next Generation of Players

How College Athletic Departments Should Be Educating Their Athletes on NIL

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

human-centered
How Human-Centered Design Led to a Startup Accelerator for Education: A Conversation with Transcend Network’s Co-founder Michael Narea
June 20, 2025

The convergence of human-centered design and education innovation is reshaping how edtech ventures emerge and scale. As AI enables hyper-efficiency and bootstrapped entrepreneurship becomes more viable, the real differentiator is empathy—founders who listen deeply to users before building solutions. A McKinsey study of 300 public companies found that design-led organizations significantly outperformed their peers, with…

Read More
care navigation
AI-Powered Care Navigation Reduces Healthcare Spend and Improves Patient Access
June 20, 2025

The U.S. healthcare system is strained by rising costs, uneven quality, and fragmented care navigation. Employers are bearing the brunt, spending more without always securing better care for their teams. According to the RAND Corporation, one effective strategy is to “change their network and benefit designs to encourage patients to use lower‑priced, higher‑value providers…

Read More
edge computing
Building the Wireless Future: Low-Power IoT, Edge Computing, and the End of the Gs
June 19, 2025

As the global race to 6G heats up, telecom providers, governments, and tech companies are investing billions to advance the next generation of hyperconnected infrastructure. European operators urge regulators to release more spectrum to stay competitive, while U.S. programs like the USDA’s ReConnect have funneled over $1 billion into rural fiber backhaul. Meanwhile, companies like…

Read More
healthcare operations
Healthcare Operations Improve with AI That Unites Data, Automation, and Ethics
June 18, 2025

Generative AI has captured the public imagination, but its most transformative use cases may lie far from flashy consumer tools. In healthcare operations, where complexity, inefficiency, and fragmentation remain persistent challenges, AI is now driving measurable improvements. Research suggests AI-enabled healthcare systems could cut administrative costs by up to $360 billion in the U.S. alone….

Read More