Blizzard first announced its Overwatch Pro League back in November of 2016, but since then not much has been stated about its developments. Blizzard’s last known update was that they were scouting out the top players worldwide, but recently, sources told ESPN that New York Mets owner Fred Wilpon, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and four other organizations and individuals had just signed letters of intent to take part in the Overwatch league.
Blizzard has come to terms to establish teams located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Shanghai, and Seoul according to ESPN. The buy in for the San Fransisco based NRG Esports team will be about 20 million dollars, but the buy in prices for the other locations have not been revealed at this time. The NRG was founded by Andrew Miller and Mark Mastrov, the co-owners of the Sacremento Kings. The hefty cost for the team, however, will be paid over a period of time. The Boston based team will go to the Kraft Sports Group while the New York team will be headed by Sterling VC, however all of this information is unconfirmed at this time
The report stated that Blizzard was having trouble putting the league together initially because of the high cost that is involved with the ownership of the teams. Blizzard released a statement in response saying that it is “in active discussions with many teams and owners” from both traditional and Esports organizations. Although these developments could be promising if true, all the news is not ensuring. Another report from Richard Lewis stated that a “sizable sponsor” dropped out because of the expensive ownership fees.