Toronto’s electronic sports world is undergoing a major overhaul. A new $ 500 million entertainment venue, with a capacity for up to 7,000 fans, is planned for an opening in 2025.
OverActive Media, owners of the Toronto Defiant Overwatch League and Toronto Ultra of the Call of Duty League, announced plans for the new location on Monday. The currently unnamed location, which will be located on a four-acre site north of Lakeshore Blvd on the 192-acre site of Toronto’s Exhibition Place, will be the first sports or entertainment venue built in the city since the construction of BMO Field in 2007 .
Check out the conceptual art of the arena, which shows what it will look like on the outside and inside.
OverActive Media says the facility plans to host more than 200 events each year, primarily entertainment and music reservations, while also facilitating conventions, corporate events, award shows and electronic sports competitions. The site will serve as the home of Toronto Defiant and Toronto Ultra, but OverActive hopes to attract other sports organizations and teams as well.
“It has always been our intention to develop a location and hosting strategy and build a facility that could not only serve as an iconic home for our two franchises, but also emerge as a global hub for major international sporting events,” President of OverActive and The CEO Chris Overholt said in a statement: “We are already in active discussions to attract some of the biggest sporting events in the world.”
The venue is being designed by Populous, a design company responsible for working on events such as the London Olympics, the Super Bowl and Yankee Stadium.
The plan for the site is still in the early stages, however. The Toronto City Council and Exhibition Place board of directors has yet to give final approval to the proposal.
“We are in the final stages of putting our business terms together with city officials and we are optimistic that we will soon be able to end our discussions to everyone’s satisfaction,” an OverActive spokesman told the Toronto Star.
Joseph Knoop is a principal writer / producer / Mercy at IGN.