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OverActive Media, the parent company of LEC League of Legends organisation Mad Lions, has today announced details of its ambitious esports venue.
The near $500m project includes a 7,000-seat theatre-style entertainment venue and hotel complex, which is due to open at Exhibition Place in Toronto in 2025. And as of December 2021, OverActive Media has secured lease terms approval from Toronto City Council for the venue.
OverActive Media also owns the Call of Duty League side Toronto Ultra, as well as Overwatch League team Toronto Defiant, so expect their future homestand matches to take place in the upcoming stadium.
Beyond their own matches, OverActive Media says this stadium will ‘elevate Toronto and Canada as a destination of choice for the global industry of gaming and esports’.
The facility plans to host more than 200 events a year. It will also serve to attract city-wide conventions, corporate events, product launches awards shows and of course esports events. The arena design was conceived by Populous.
It’s the first new sports or entertainment venue built in Toronto since BMO Field in 2007 and will aim to host live music performances as well as sports and media events.
“Today is another important step in the evolution of OverActive Media,” said Chris Overholt, OverActive’s president and CEO.
“We are building a world leading 21st century sports media and entertainment company. This best-in-class performance venue will be the chosen home for a new generation of fans that think differently about their entertainment choices and experiences.”
“We are already in active discussions to attract some of the biggest esport events in the world.”
Jonathan Mallie, senior principal and lead designer for Populous, added: “The design of the theatre was neither conceived as a sports arena nor an opera house, rather, a new typology that straddles the two – a state-of-the-art performance venue.
“The theatre architecture creates a merger of the old and the new.”
Mad Lions are currently third in the LEC Spring 2021 Season, with seven wins and four losses.
The news comes after a mix of new esports venues are set to open across the UK.
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
