Dallas Fuel bask in the hometown atmosphere as the Overwatch League tests its plans to have franchises routinely play matches in their own venues.

All 4,500 tickets available for the Dallas Fuel match sold out, with some fans arriving two hours before the gates opened. Photo: dallas fuel All 4,500 tickets available for the Dallas Fuel match sold out, with some fans arriving two hours before the gates opened. Photo: dallas fuel All 4,500 tickets available for the Dallas Fuel match sold out, with some fans arriving two hours before the gates opened. Photo: dallas fuel

After 16 months competing in the Overwatch League, the Dallas Fuel finally played a game in their home market on April 27.

For Kenneth Hersh, lead investor in parent company Envy Gaming, the significance of the moment cannot be overstated. In one afternoon, he said, esports changed from a concept into a tangible entertainment option in the country’s fifth-largest market.

“This takes us off the business pages and onto the sports pages,” said Hersh, wearing a white Fuel hat and blue Fuel shirt outside a VIP box during the action.

Until now, every regular-season game had been played at the league-owned Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles. By next year, all 20 franchises will play 28 total games, with the number of home games in their own venues still being finalized.

The league’s first Bud Light Homestand Weekend, hosted by Dallas on April 27-28, was billed as a trial run, and indeed, some things went wrong: A power outage at the Allen Event Center delayed play for nearly 45 minutes. But the emotional appeal of bringing esports home was immediately apparent.

Some of the 4,500 ticket holders (a sellout) were in line at 8 a.m., two hours before the doors opened on Saturday. Single-day tickets ranged from $35 to $125, with VIP packages going higher. The Fanatics-run merchandise booth was mobbed. Fans even mostly stayed in their seats during the power outage.

Because the event included three OWL games before the Fuel finally took the stage, most fans had already been there for five hours before the home team’s starting six was introduced. No matter, the crowd exploded into cheers and chants, waving modified Texas flags, slapping Jack in the Box-branded thunder sticks and holding up homemade signs. “Burn blue,” went the rallying cry as Dallas routed the Los Angeles Valiant, 4-0.

The economics and logistics of hosting regular esports games in markets are challenging, to be sure. League officials admit they’re not sure about ticket demand, and the teams are taking on new levels of operational risk.

But at a time when traditional sports struggle with questions about distributing their physical product to a digital world, doing the reverse is relatively straightforward. Hersh and other OWL investors believe the emotional power of home games will generate new spending and word-of-mouth marketing among core fans, while also convincing business partners in a way that hasn’t been possible so far.

“I think it’s going to be a groundswell on the sponsorship side,” Hersh said. “The sponsors I talk to, you don’t have to convince them that gaming is on fire. They know the numbers. Their question is how to reach them.”