New Esports Arena: Sunderland to become international esports hub
Written by Meena Green on 24th March 2026
An old car showroom in Sunderland is being transformed into a high-tech esports arena. The port city is on the way to becoming an international hub for the esports community as the arena gives the local gaming scene a proper home.
Graduate intern at National Esports Performance Campus, Louis Skilton said: “It’s kind of in two phases, you’ll have the aspects of esports bringing people from outside the net of Sunderland in, but you’ll also have the outward part where it’s part of the community as well, so it should be really exciting.”
Esports has taken the world by storm. Audiences tune in to watch tournaments all over the world, such as the annual Legue of Legends World Championships hosted by Riot Games.
Sunderland is no different with its rapidly growing esports community. The riverside city is home to the National Esports Performance Campus and the Esports Event Management course at the University of Sunderland. This makes Sunderland the perfect home to the new esports arena.
What originally was a car showroom is being transformed into what will be the first esports arena of its kind in Europe, that also will be able to host a performance space for theatre and music shows.
The aim is to help the development of Sunderland as well as job opportunities. British Esports already have around 60 students from the NEPC who are already getting work for big tech companies and esports – some even transferring their esports skills to other career opportunities, like one student who trained in racing games and went on to work for F1.
University of Sunderland student, Ethan Fenwick said: “This is directly linked to our course [esports event management] and I would love to go and work there after this course.”
Before building is even finished, it’s already encouraging young people to stay in the North East.
Esports Arena credit: Meena Green
British Esports has built an additional structure to the side of the former car showroom in order to fit the facilities they’ll be offering audiences and esports teams.
Building Operation Manager at British Esports, Martin Heap said: “You’ll walk through [the admin area] that will take you into a 250-capacity event space where we can do live observations, we can put banners on, music, anything like that.”
Apart from being able to seat 250 audience members at the stage area, there will be a massive 17m-wide LED screen covering the wall above the stage so everyone attending can see the gameplay and what’s happening on stage.
There will also be an outdoor area, which Martin explained: “On a nice day, you can open that up, food trucks there.”
The aim is to create a space people want to use. They can be entertained by esports tournaments or music gigs, then go out and enjoy some good food. He estimates that with the stage and outdoor area, they could have the capacity of a thousand people.
NEPC Bootcamp Room credit: Meena Green
The arena will be working with the National Esports Performance Campus (NEPC) on Sunniside, who offer introductory courses around esports to higher education. They’ll teach you to compete, broadcast, edit social media videos and more.
Everything they learn here, can be brought to the arena where they have the stage, as well as a broadcast and editing room and area for coaches and managers to sit and view their team during their competitions.
Both facilities will offer a bootcamp space. These will be used for training or for warming up before a competition. The rooms, though available at both facilities, won’t be used identically.
Graduate intern, Louis Skilton said: “The bootcamp spaces in the arena will be more for event use. So, it’ll be, like, a facilitator for teams before they go on stage to get that practice in to warm up, to make sure they’re not cold before they’re playing on stage. So that’s they can also practice there but the NEPC is much more of, performance and improvement area.”
At the NEPC, has two types of bootcamp areas. The first is a these bootcamp rooms which is has seven PC set up designed for a typical five player team and two managerial or coach roles. This room is air conditioned, has a lounge area with comfortable dark sofas and LED lights that can change colour to fit the mood, game or team inside the room.
They offer fully catered housing spaces for longer stays – typically a week or two, sometimes even a month – which have bootcamp rooms in the attics. These are either for training or gaming when there’s some downtime.
The River Wear and Stadium of Light, Sunderland, North East England credit: Alamy
The location is ideal for both the arena and the gaming community, neighbouring to Sunderland’s football arena, Stadium of Light. Martin Heap said: “We’re really lucky to have this because we have the football grounds. There’s up to 50,000 people that walk past there every other Saturday.”
It’s right at the heart of the development of the city. This means it’s just a short walk from the metro, or the city centre’s Keel Square crossing. Both travel options mean a walk past Sheepfolds Stables – an historical landmark which has become the best place to experience both fine dining and street food options. British Esports wants to give back to the Sunderland community and help the area thrive, making the proximity to Sheepfolds a great opportunity to do so.
With such a high-tech arena and optimal location, Sunderland is one step closer to becoming the national and international esports hub.
