Out on the town: How esports events drive cultural and economic impact | Playable Futures
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When a major esports event rolls into a city, there is an immediate contribution that goes far beyond the walls of the arena.
The economic and cultural opportunity large-scale competitive gaming events bring to their urban hosts are significant, and arguably deserve the attention of a greater spotlight, as much of the conversation around esports continues to focus on professional players, earnings, audience size, and those persistent comparisons with traditional sports.
ESL FaceIt Group's Bobby Hare is all too aware of what esports can do for cities. He stands as director of Host City Partnerships & Hospitality at the vast esports organisation, which holds events and series like Intel Extreme Masters (IEM), DreamHack and the ESL Pro League. In his role, he works building partnerships with cities keen to welcome large esports and gaming events, meaning understanding their aims and motivations, infrastructure, demographics, tourism, local educators, and more.
"Cities today are no longer just curious about esports," he explains. "Now they see the immediate impacts, with economic impact being a huge one. They see that opportunity for the local community. They see that our events are global and they attract a huge international audience of [in-person] visitors, with millions more watching online; seeing the destination hosting these huge events at the forefront of pop culture and digital generations' lives. And they see the numbers we now have around that economic impact.
"Cities today are no longer just curious about esports. Now they see the immediate impacts, with economic impact being a huge one"
"For example, our recent IEM Cologne tournament delivered around $29 million of economic impact for the city. Obviously that's through visitors and tourism,
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