The esports industry spent years trying to bottle the magic of a packed arena into a permanent studio. Now, after a long and winding road that incorporated flat broadcast facilities and fixed ecosystems, the crowd is coming back — and so is the dollar.
Two venue developments have drawn significant industry attention in recent weeks. The first is the gigantic London Colosseum project, a 25,000-seat facility being developed as an anchor for the UK’s global esports ambitions that will also host NBA games.
The second is the long-delayed (six years!) completion of Invictus Gaming’s purpose-built arena in Shanghai. Both put physical spaces back in the headline but they represent fundamentally different approaches to what an esports venue should look like, feel like — and, ultimately, what it should be.
Two venues, two very different eras
The London Colosseum is not an esports-exclusive building, even if it’s developed heavily for the “explosive gaming market.” It’s marketed as a multi-use sports facility, with the NBA’s planned EuroLeague as its primary commercial driver. There will also be residences, a hotel — and much more. Located in east London, it’s set to be the UK’s biggest indoor venue.
Esports is, in fact, just one pillar among several (which also include championship boxing) but that is precisely the point. As The Esports Radar reported, the broader industry has largely moved on from building isolated, capital-heavy “temples of esports” in favor of adaptable entertainment venues where gaming events can thrive alongside everything else. Commercially, it makes a lot of sense.
The Invictus Gaming arena, by contrast, tells a different story. Privately funded, it’s more of a throwback to an earlier era of esports infrastructure thinking; a dedicated, single-org home built in a market that already tested the limits of that model hard. It’s also a passion project, with iG investor Zhang Haohan claiming that no major publishers or government subsidiaries contributed to its creation.
Even when faced with multiple setbacks over the last six years, including the covid-19 pandemic, Zhang leant on underdog success stories to give him the motivation needed to keep going with the project.
The cautionary tale here is hardly subtle. Royal Never Give Up, once one of China’s flagship League of Legends organizations, collapsed after years of carrying enormous stadium overhead, a burden that compounded what were already deep structural problems. EA Sports’ Sam Turkbas flagged this exact issue last year, describing dedicated single-use esports venues as having evolved into a “lowest return-on-investment project” for organizations that took the plunge.
The contrast between London and Shanghai is not just geographical. It is a before-and-after of how the industry thinks about bricks and mortar.
Flexibility is winning, but small venues are too
The shift toward multi-use flexibility doesn’t necessarily mean that smaller, dedicated esports spaces are struggling. Friendly Fire and EVA — a VR arena operator — have both expanded in recent months. EVA secured a €35 million fundraising round to support its European rollout, signaling that niche, experience-driven venues still attract serious capital when the format is right.
The common thread is adaptability. Neither Friendly Fire nor EVA is betting on a single game or a single org filling seats night after night. They are building environments designed for varied programming — the same logic behind the London Colosseum, just at a different scale.
The bigger picture
The “build it and they will come” era, with its oversized single-purpose venues and enormous fixed costs, produced some spectacular failures. The industry earned its skepticism the hard way.
What is emerging now is more disciplined and more sustainable. Flexible venues that host gaming as part of a broader events mix. Touring formats that take the game to where fans already live. Smaller, experience-focused spaces funded by investors who understand the unit economics. Fans want to see matches, sure; but they also crave an experience.
The London Colosseum fits that model and then some. EVA’s €35 million raise fits it and then some. Even Riot’s cautious online-hybrid LEC experiment fits it — testing assumptions before committing fully to any one approach.
Esports still wants the crowd back. It is just no longer willing to pay any price to get one.
