From New Hampshire to California, Parks Departments Embrace Video Games

istock.com/gorodenkoff

 

Connecting state and local government leaders

Esports leagues, where gamers of all ages compete online in tournaments, are an increasingly popular programming choice for parks and recreation departments.

Typically, activities offered by parks and recreation departments involve swimming pools, tennis courts and soccer balls. But increasingly, they’re also including PlayStations, Xboxes and other gaming consoles.

That’s due to the rise of esports leagues, where video gamers of all ages compete head to head in tournaments, either virtually or in person. They’re an increasingly popular programming choice for parks and recreation departments around the country, from smaller cities (Goffstown, New Hampshire) and mid-sized markets (Elgin, Illinois) to large, urban centers (Dallas). 

It’s unclear how many cities offer esports as official parks programming, according to the National Recreation and Park Association, which does not track the activity due to its relatively recent emergence among government agencies, said Rachel Banner, the organization’s director of parks access. 

“Our park metrics—the data that tracks what agencies offer—hasn’t been updated to include esports, which is a good reflection of how new it is,” she said. “That said, it has been a frequent topic of conversation on our NRPA Connect Board, which is our networking platform for parks and rec professionals.”

The details of local government esports leagues vary across the country, but typically involve a partnership between an online gaming platform and the city, county or state parks agency. For example, the parks department in New Albany, Ohio, uses Discord for its esports tournaments, while Greensboro, North Carolina, is partnering with Mission Control for its new league.

The Greensboro league, which is registering players for its inaugural summer season, will feature three divisions (kids between the ages of 7 and 12, teens between the ages of 13 and 17, and adults 18 and up) and four games (Madden 21, NBA 2K21, Fortnite and Rocket League 2v2). Games will start this month on weeknights, though play will likely expand to weekends eventually, officials said. 

The idea for the league solidified in the early days of the pandemic, when Covid forced the parks department to pause all in-person activities and programming, said Quentin Jones, director of the city’s Warnersville Recreation Center. 

“Part of parks and recreation is finding your community and figuring out how to engage with them,” he said. “Because I worked in the rec center, I had a lot of kids and teens coming in, and I knew they played video games, because that’s all they talked about. Sometimes, my coaches would say they were playing online with the kids, so I was like, ‘This could be a great program to offer while people are at home.’”

Jones’ initial plan was to run the gaming league as a stand-in until traditional programs could resume. The city began with a few tournaments in the fall, with little marketing and a few dozen participants, mostly to gauge interest and see which age groups were more likely to participate. After that, parks officials sent out a survey, asking for feedback and information on whether participants would be interested in joining a formal league and which games they’d most like to play.

“That’s how we picked the games we’re offering now, but those games will change,” said Jacob Neal, operations supervisor for the Greensboro Department of Parks and Recreation. “One thing we kind of knew when we started was that we weren’t really going to know what the Greensboro community wants right off the bat.”

League play will be virtual for now, partially due to Covid, but also because of the high start-up costs of outfitting an in-person play area with gaming consoles, TVs, tables and controllers. It might have been possible, Neal said, but participation fees would have been much higher as a result (league members pay $10 for each five-week season tournament).

But virtual play limits participants to those who own gaming consoles, so the city hopes to offer in-person tournaments eventually, potentially with “teams” comprised of kids and adults representing different recreation centers. Still, virtual play can help foster connections, Neal said—between kids and their friends, adults who may not know each other, and for people who may not be interested in traditional sports, or those who aren’t physically able to play them.

“You’re in a league, and a lot of these people have never played in an actual league,” Jones said. “It’s just fostering connections that we’d normally do in person. It should feel the same, except that it’s online.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.