Tottenham Hotspur – the London-based football club who have up until this year finished below their superior rivals Arsenal for the past 21 years – are looking at hosting esports events in their new stadium.
The Daily Mail reports that Spurs are looking to earn a rather ambitious £3 million per event by 2019.
Expected to be completed by September 2018 (or 2019-2020 season at the latest), the stadium will also host NFL and music events.
Spurs’ executive director Donna-Maria Cullen said: “The sliding pitch we are installing means we will be able to host more concerts and other events. The NFL has driven up standards in our stadium. We will have new audiences coming into the stadium.”
Spurs are billing the new £800 million stadium as a ‘world-class sports and entertainment destination’.
It will have a capacity of 60,000 for non-sporting events and a VIP capacity of 8,000. For football matches, the capacity will be 61,559.
“The sliding pitch we are installing means we will be able to host more concerts and other events. We will have new audiences coming into the stadium.”
The news comes after several top-tier football clubs have embraced esports.
Both Manchester City and West Ham have signed FIFA players over the last 12 months, whilst Valencia, Schalke, PSG and FC Copenhagen have entered esports in some way or another, either by signing players or League of Legends teams.
The UK has been known to host high-profile esports events. In 2015, the League of Legends Worlds quarter finals sold out at the Wembley SSE Arena across four days. The SSE Arena has a capacity of 12,500.
The new Spurs stadium could be another stage for other big international gaming events.
Tottenham representatives were present at the Escon European Esports Conference in London earlier this year.
The Daily Mail claims that Tottenham can expect to make £500,000 to £1 million per non-football event, including esports. This figure is based on the values of sponsorship deals, catering and ticket sales of between £20 to 100, based on American sales.
