Economics
Cowboys. Rangers. Fortnite? A Texas City Bets on Esports Stadium
- Arlington already has major-league baseball and football teams
- Now it is spending $10 million to build an esports arena
Source: City of Arlington
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The home of the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Rangers is making a risky bet on the fast-growing world of competitive video games.
Arlington, Texas, is gambling $10 million of taxpayer money on what it calls the country’s biggest electronic-sports venue. The city of 396,000, which has sunk about $1 billion into football and baseball stadiums, is wagering that gamers will leave their homes, where they can follow Overwatch or Fortnite matches on live-streaming apps, to witness contestants in tricked-out easy chairs compete on big screens.