Coming to a theater near you: A completely different kind of entertainment known as esports

After decades of being the place to go to watch movies on the big screen, theaters today are playing to a different kind of audience: competitive gamers. 

What’s Going On?

The fact is, traditional movie theaters are being repurposed by the ever-expanding esports industry. And, as existing venues become increasingly more available, theaters will look to fill their seats with esports competitions.

An Esports Story

One example of this evolution is taking place at the Whitaker Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Whitaker is an arts and science center that brings in a combination of educational and cultural content to its audience. On one night, one might see a 3D exploration of America’s National Parks; on the next, a show from singer-songwriter Don McLean. While audiences from baby boomers on down to millennials share an enjoyment of cultural staples such as these, something else has caught their attention. That something? Video games. Gaming is now not just something you play, it’s also something you watch. 

CEO and President of the Whitaker Center, Ted Black, has become an outspoken advocate of the need for Centers such as Whitaker to reinvent themselves. At Whitaker, for example, the main theater seats 400, all facing a 38’x80’ foot screen. As a student of sports business and a former executive of two NHL franchises, Black has melded his two passions--screen and sport—to create a cutting-edge experience for patrons of this East Coast venue.

With a hockey background, Black likes to quote Wayne Gretzky, and Gretzky used to say,

“Don’t go where the puck is at, go where it’s going to be.”

To Black, where the puck is going to be is in the esports gaming industry, and the center has made accommodations to host a local university as they prepare for their inaugural esports season. This local school, Harrisburg University, is now the 50th school in the US to join the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE). Black’s move to screen collegiate esports will reinvent the Center, and make it relevant to a whole new audience.

“We’re transforming the capabilities of our Select Medical Digital Cinema inside Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts to become the premier live viewing experience for esports fans,” Ted Black said in an interview in May of this year. “On the east coast especially, nothing exists right now in the form of a complete esports arena space, but we’re going to change that.”

On the university side, Harrisburg is stepping up its recruiting efforts to find the best college gamers in the world, giving out sixteen scholarships for perhaps the most uncommon reason anyone has heard in the admissions office: “What’s your current win rate on Overwatch?” The team at Harrisburg will play three of the most popular, spectator-engaging games like Overwatch and League of Legends, and play them to a sell-out crowd in a quickly evolving Art and Science center.

Jeff Wang, Harrisburg’s new head coach, said in a recent interview that games have been chosen according to their popularity as well as their spectrality. “These events will come complete with broadcasters and an easy-to-follow sequence to give even those that are new to the gaming world an easy way in.”

Whitaker CEO Ted Black feels confident in the Center’s new use for their state-of-the-art theater, and the theater will now host HU’s training and competition as they play other collegiate teams in the country.

With over 60 universities now involved in the collegiate esports scene, these schools will be looking towards early evolvers like the Whitaker Center to fill the space between video games and venues. In an improbable turn of events, gaming is now a university sport, worthy of scholarship, and coming soon to a theater near you.