September 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 67

The Moment of Zen: When a 16-year-old from Pennsylvania,
who goes by " Bugha, " wins more money at an esports
tournament (Fortnite) than Tiger Woods does winning The
Masters or Novak Djokovic does winning Wimbledon, you
know that esports is the future.

Why Should Park and Recreation Agencies
Get into Esports?
Connect with hard-to-reach audiences. Besides being
the fastest-growing genre, esports has a primary target
audience that is critical to park and recreation agencies:
teens and young adults. Virtually every agency struggles with programming for teens, who are notoriously
hard to attract for structured programming or offerings
besides traditional sports. In addition, per the National
Alliance for Youth Sports Poll, 70 percent of kids stop
playing sports by the age of 13, while, in contrast, 90
percent of kids ages 12-17 play video games.
This is where offering esports and eGaming can help
agencies attract an audience that may not otherwise
show up at their recreation centers. The evolution of
esports and eGaming from a single-player, solitary activity to a multiplayer, immersive social experience can
be helpful in allowing these audiences to create their
own place to hang out or socialize in a safe, structured
environment...at your recreation center.
Provide physical activity and (multigenerational)
socialization benefits. As a father of two kids, a 6-yearold and (almost) 2-year-old, I, too, am concerned about
the lack of physical activity the current generation gets
daily. With an increase in childhood obesity and nature
deficit disorder, I am hesitant to recommend anything
that may simply create an increasingly sedentary environment simply in another location.
However, there are companies, such as MassVR
(based in Chicago), that provide a team-based, virtual-reality experience where participants are physically
active and run, jump and move, while being engaged
in a multiplayer game. Chris Lai, founder of Mass VR,
shares insights in his TEDx talk (https://tinyurl.com/
y3qy7l7o) about this immersive gameplay format that
not only promotes physical activity, but also increases
opportunities to socialize in, what he calls, a " Mom-approved " environment.
These benefits are not reserved simply for teens or
youth, but also extend to a varied and multigenerational
audience. An October 2018 study by CommonSense.org
reveals that 31 percent of Fortnite-playing dads and 17
percent of Fornite-playing moms play, at least occasionally, with their child, and 39 percent of teens reveal that

playing Fortnite helps them bond with a sibling.
Brodie Sutton, a 34-year-old engineer in the semiconductor industry in Virginia, has been an avid gamer
for more than 25 years. Along with following gaming
influencers on YouTube or Twitch, he also plays Massively Multi-Player Online (MMO) games, such as War
Thunder with friends across the country. Sutton says,
" It is incredible to see how increasingly immersive and
interactive these gaming opportunities have become.
They have not only helped build new friendships across
geographies, but have also provided learning opportunities in several areas, including math, reading, strategy
and critical thinking. "
Maximize facility utilization and revenue generation. Another challenge many park and recreation
agencies deal with is having unused or under-used facility spaces, especially at non-prime times. Offering
eGaming nights or esports tournaments could be another way to use existing capacity, bring in a new audience and cross-promote existing offerings that they
may not be aware of. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has
a local Esports Club that offers a STEAM (Fortnite)

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September 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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