Credit: The Esports Observer/Esports Business Solutions UG
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The United Center is an iconic part of Chicago’s sports history. Opened a quarter-century ago in 1994 to replace the original Chicago Stadium, the United Center hosted the NBA’s Bulls during the last three of the Michael Jordan-led championship runs in the ’90s, and has also been the home of the NHL’s Blackhawks during its trio of more recent Stanley Cup conquests.
With this past weekend’s Intel 
Extreme Masters (IEM) Chicago 2019 tournament, the United Center hosted its first-ever professional esports event, as thousands of fans passed statues of Bulls and Blackhawks greats en route to see teams such as Team Liquid , ENCE , and MIBR battle it out in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive . This was actually the second year for IEM Chicago, with last November’s debut event spending a single year at the Wintrust Arena before moving to the United Center for what is currently a two-year commitment.
The Wintrust Arena is much newer, opening in 2017, but it’s also smaller in size and scope: with less than half the total seating capacity, it plays host to the WNBA’s Chicago Sky and DePaul University’s basketball teams. The United Center is not only a significantly larger venue, but it’s also one with more technological assets that ESL and brand partners could tap into for activations.
“Wintrust is beautiful, but there are things we’re able to utilize at the United Center that we weren’t able to do before.”
“Wintrust is beautiful, but there are things we’re able to utilize at the United Center that we weren’t able to do before,” Paul Brewer, ESL North America’s senior vice president of brand partnerships, told The Esports Observer. “Some of the ceiling heights around the [Wintrust Arena] concourse—which was really the only opportunity to kind of do anything—are 10 feet. That’s not going to really provide, even from a visual perspective and especially from an overall presence perspective, what the atrium of the United Center is going to provide.”
The United Center’s atrium was the primary place where brands activated for IEM Chicago, with presenting partner Intel erecting an enormous booth on one side of a statue of Michael Jordan dunking on an opponent, and AT&T and Acer Predator establishing activations on the other side. With banner-like screens stretching across the atrium and other digital integrations in sight, ESL helped the brands make the most of the opportunity and space.
Credit: The Esports Observer/Esports Business Solutions UG
Related Article: A Look at IEM Chicago 2019’s Brand Activations
“The atrium alone provides a big space for brands to activate—booths and different ways for fans to engage. Between Intel, AT&T, and Acer, there was a lot of opportunity for entertainment and for the fans to engage with those brands,” said Brewer. “Being able to provide more space gives them the opportunity to really showcase their products and what they do as a brand and as a company.”
For Brewer and ESL, the United Center not only provides better opportunities to plot brand activations and put on an event with significant room to grow in the future. It’s also a sign to them that esports is finding mainstream appeal, and can comfortably exist in a location like this that has hosted some of the greatest traditional sports franchises in history.
“Between Intel, AT&T, and Acer, there was a lot of opportunity for entertainment and for the fans to engage with those brands.”
“We, as a company, are constantly trying to understand that convergence of traditional sports, traditional entertainment, and esports,” said Brewer. “No offense to any of the other venues we work with, but to go into a venue that Michael Jordan walked the halls in, and to be able to put Intel, AT&T, and Acer surrounding the Michael statue, I think that’s a good example of it. And we saw it, right? There were lots of people there taking pictures of the Michael Jordan statue, and also playing in the AT&T booth. I think that’s very cool for us to see that there really is a convergence between traditional sports and esports.
“To be in a venue like that was really special for me personally,” he added, “but also to us as a property, just because of the history and the iconic nature of what the Bulls, the United Center, and what Michael represents.”
Why Activate?
Those three activations in the atrium were the main draw, but AT&T also activated within the concourse. Following last week’s announcement of an expanded partnership with ESL through 2020, the company also had an ESL Mobile Open booth with gaming smartphone setups, and sponsored the weekend’s team signing sessions at the venue’s permanent AT&T Digital Lounge thanks its existing relationship with the United Center.
Credit: The Esports Observer/Esports Business Solutions UG
Not every IEM Chicago sponsor had a public-facing activation, however. Chipotle sponsored the players’ lounge and catered for players and talent, for example, rather than have any sort of presence in the concourse or atrium. “From an activation perspective, for this event specifically, it’s a little more of, ‘How are we going to level up the player and talent experience?’ as opposed to, ‘Let’s try to sample burrito bowls to 5,000 fans,’” said Brewer.
New ESL partner PepsiCo’s MTN DEW AMP GAME FUEL brand also did not have a public activation, which Brewer said was due to complications with Coca-Cola owning pour rights for the United Center. GAME FUEL cans appeared on the broadcast, however. Brewer said that ESL encourages sponsors to activate onsite whenever possible and when it makes sense to, as it’s a unique opportunity to directly connect with esports fans and build brand awareness.
“It’s such a good venue and so close to the heart of Chicago that I think there’s a good opportunity to activate brands and give people an experience from the moment you get to the venue…”
“This is an opportunity—not to use an old AT&T cliché—but an opportunity to reach out and touch someone, and an opportunity at events to come out and really engage. As we talk about how to activate an event, it’s really about what kind of experience or opportunity you’re going to provide fans,” he said. “A big part of the conversation that we have with brands around our ESL property is how much of an advantage there is to activating onsite and getting in front of the highest, most ultra-engaged audience there is in gaming and esports.”
Now that ESL has one year under its belt at the United Center, the company has a better sense of what space is available to it and how it might expand on these activations for 2020. Brewer said that there are untapped opportunities within suites and the different concourse levels, and that he’d like to take advantage of the venue’s exterior surroundings as well.
“The thing that I’m excited about is the potential of using some of that outdoor space,” he said. “It would’ve been miserable this weekend based on the temperatures, but I think there’s an opportunity in some cases to do things around the perimeter of the United Center. It’s such a good venue and so close to the heart of Chicago that I think there’s a good opportunity to activate brands and give people an experience from the moment you get to the venue—before you’re even inside.”
Credit: The Esports Observer/Esports Business Solutions UG
He also sees potential to activate more within the actual bowl of the arena. AT&T had a “Best Seats in the House” promotion that allowed attendees to earn exclusive floor seats in a blocked-off area, but Brewer believes that there’s space to do more in there. However, the goal is to maximize the space for brands without going overboard and negatively affecting the vibe of the event.
“You never want to turn it into too many activations, because it becomes a little more trade show-y then—but coming up with another couple of premium, public activations, I think there’s space for it around the different sections of the United Center,” he said. “It’s going to be exciting to be pitching that and bringing that to life in 2020.”
