Charlotte could soon land a major professional eSports team

Venture capital firm SierraMaya 360 is in negotiations to invest in a nationally prominent eSports team and bring its headquarters to Charlotte.

The vision is for there to be an arena, viewing center and training facility for the best players in the world. Co-founder Amish Shah said investors in Dallas have also been interested.

This is a big deal. eSports is HUGE and growing rapidly.

eSports basically is professional video game playing, commonly around games like Counter-Strike and League of Legends.

There’s serious audience and serious money here. ESPN covers eSports now, and former NBA player Rick Fox (now an eSports investor) said the category will overtake the National Hockey League in as little as two years. Marketers are going to pump $300+ million into it this year.

Teams have hundreds of thousands of fans. TBS is going to be broadcasting a Counter-Strike league this summer just like a network would air a traditional sport, with a regular season, playoffs, and a championship.

Can you imagine stuff like that being centered in Charlotte?

Photo by Sam Churchill via Flickr (Creative Commons)

Where? When?

We don’t know yet. The deal should be finalized in the next few weeks and more details on the mechanics of it will be available in late April or May.

Cover photo by matthewwu88 via Flickr (Creative Commons).