Eden Park to become New Zealand’s home of esports

July 18, 2020

Auckland venue Eden Park is set to become the home of esports in New Zealand with the unveiling yesterday of plans for it to be home to the Esports High Performance Centre - a new destination venue, content creation hub and cutting edge training facility.

Leading sports and esports investment and advisory firm, Guinevere Capital has revealed the new centre of esports development with Eden Park to include a facility designed to act as a hub for the Oceanic esports community, and a next generation training centre for esports stars.

Planned to open in the coming months, the Eden Park esports facility will give the best teams in Australasia and Oceania including Dire Wolves, famed for its flagship League of Legends team, who has just revealed a huge expansion including rosters in EA Sports FIFA, Overwatch, NBA 2K, and VALORANT, professional practice spaces, stream booths and broadcast capabilities.

Alongside providing this ideal environment for the development of professional players, the Eden Park Esports High Performance Centre will act as a community hub for gaming, hosting weekly leagues for the likes of New Zealand’s fighting game community Standing Fierce.

The venue will feature streaming practice rooms for teams to scrim and a broadcast area for live matches and commentary, alongside LAN areas for large scale events, and 5G and fibre capabilities. Permanent streaming booths featuring the latest in broadcast technology will be available for local and visiting content creators to use, as well as chill out areas and space for the gaming and esports communities to host events and expand.

The instalment of the esports facility represents the growing significance of esports in New Zealand, and the impact the new industry will have on the region’s future.

Eden Park Chief Executive, Nick Sautner says the initiative will attract new audiences who may have never attended a rugby or cricket match at Eden Park, while showcasing some of the country’s top gamers on the world stage.

Sautner advised “New Zealand’s national stadium is iconic and at the centre of many special memories for both Kiwis and tourists around the world.

“The Esports High Performance Centre will showcase Eden Park’s ongoing ability to diversify, evolve, and be at the forefront of new technology.”

Guinevere Capital brings together the traditional sports and esports worlds both from a performance and commercialisation standpoint, and aims to develop local esports ecosystems spanning Australia, New Zealand and Europe.

The Eden Park centre is the newest in a series of global esports facilities the firm has played a part in launching, including at England’s home of rugby Twickenham and the Esports High Performance Centre at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

David Harris, Managing Director of Guinevere Capital, explains “the Eden Park Esports High Performance Centre will be a melting pot of the ANZ esports and gaming communities, where we can develop our esports science and training philosophies, and provide the infrastructure for players and streamers to hone their craft and build their brands.

“Whilst esports is a hugely modern industry which brings a new brand of athlete, setting up a facility like this in Eden Park, which holds immense legacy and cultural significance, feels fitting. Esports is going to be a huge part of New Zealand’s future, and we’re proud that we get to be a part of that.”

Founded in 2016, Guinevere Capital is an advisory and investment firm focused on high growth segments of the sports and esports industry, bringing together performance, commercialisation, media and management to create leading global organisations.

Images: League of Legends competition (top) and Eden Park (below).

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