Celebrating the 20th anniversary of its ESPN Wide World of Sports complex at Walt Disney World, a new entertainment and sports arena was opened earlier this year to expand offerings at the athletic-focused space. The step was taken to continue on the path of further expanding and growing the 220-acre sports venue which is widely considered the best youth sports facility in America today. Today, our partners at BetFreeBets will take a look at the new space and how it’s being used.
With sports betting seemingly soon to be legalized around the US — and free bets available to provide easy initiation to starting-out sports punters — the events hosted in the arena would serve as just the right mediums to increase the sports betting funds. The new arena has 8,000 seats and is expected to host a good number of indoor sports events, ranging from volleyball and basketball to wrestling, gymnastics, and cheerleading. It will perhaps most prominently play host the runDisney Health & Fitness Expos on the runDisney race weekends.
The Purpose
This newly launched Arena is the third indoor venue for the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex, and can be termed as one of the largest in the country today, designed specifically keeping the dancing and cheering events in mind. You can read another detailed report on its opening at Forbes.com.
The original complex opened in 1997, offering a novel sports vacation experience to everyone, wherein athletes of all age groups and backgrounds could continue pursuing their dreams. Talking to the press about the opening, the Vice President of Disney Sports, Faron Kelley said, “We have created one of the most unique sports arenas in the country. We sat down and really listened to what our partners told us they needed the space to look like and what we ended up with is a fantastic new arena. We look forward to hosting many events in our new building for years to come.”
The Features
The flexibility offered by arena is one of its USPs. It can be easily transformed to host more than six of regulation-size volleyball and basketball courts. What’s more, even further expansion can be done to host open floor speaking events, family shows, exhibitions and other big events like college cheerleading and dance team Championships. So it’s not just sports balls that are in store here.
Other important features of the newly opened arena include 70-seat judge’s boxes, built-in loges, attached box office, and two versatile auxiliary venue spaces. Additionly, there are 35 concession points of sales and seven concession stands offering plenty of specialty items like Greek Dogs, Adobo Chicken Rice Bowls, Chocolate Banana Empanadas, and more!
Looking Forward
The opening of the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex arena is a major step forward in Disney’s sports business expansion efforts through relentless growth strategy which is based on enhancement of existing events and development of diverse events like competitions, entertainment and tournaments.
In future, the sports complex’s outdoor sports portfolio will be expanded further, continuing hosting major events like the 2018 NFL Pro bowl week, apart from providing constant support to more than hundred events that already take place at the venue throughout the year.
Partner Content created in partnership with Bet Free Bets.
