Monumental Sports & Entertainment
Ownership group Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE) has announced plans for a new 14,000-square-foot esports facility in Washington, DC.
MSE, which owns the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Washington Wizards and National Hockey League’s (NHL) Washington Capitals, has said the venue will offer year-round immersive experiences in esports, music, other programming and community events. Pre and post-event activations for fans attending Capitals and Wizards games or events will also be hosted at the new venue.
The facility will include an esports competition studio that can hold more than 150 people and is expected to host over 200 events per year.
Ticket sales and distribution giant Ticketmaster, a long-term partner of MSE, has secured naming rights for the facility, which will be called ‘District E Powered by Ticketmaster’ and be located adjacent to Capital One Arena, home of the Wizards and Capitals.
The venue will also serve as competition and training venue for MSE’s esports franchises, including Wizards District Gaming and Caps Gaming, and look to nurture the amateur gaming community in the Greater Washington Metropolitan region.
Additionally, the new build will serve as an East Coast satellite office for esports organisation Team Liquid, which MSE has a stake in, as well as aim to attract streaming influencers.
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District E Powered by Ticketmaster has a targeted delivery for autumn 2022.
MSE took its first steps into competitive gaming with an investment in esports ownership group aXiomatic in 2016. Since then, the group has acquired equity stakes in the likes of Epic Games, Niantic, Dapper Labs and Nifty Games. Zach Leonsis, MSE’s president of media and new enterprises, also sits on the executive committee of the NBA 2K League.
“We are excited to invest in this first-of-its-kind venue for esports and other immersive experiences and know it will quickly become the preferred destination for pre and post-event attendees with one-of-a-kind programming and food and beverage offerings,” said Leonsis.
“And given the rapid rise in the popularity of esports and the growing audience for gaming in general, we believe the time is right to build an esports-centric venue that serves as a rallying point for the gaming community in the mid-Atlantic.
“The wide-scale, international appeal of esports brands is well documented. We believe that developing deep, grassroots-level connections within our local community is the natural next step for esports as the genre develops into a major league aside other traditional sports.
“We are so proud to build a best-in-class esports venue featuring our globally recognised esports team, Team Liquid, our back-to-back NBA 2K League champion, Wizards District Gaming, our leading Caps Gaming NHL initiative, and much more to come in the future.”
