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A new experience is on its way to Portland. If everything goes according to plan, Outrage eSports Bar will become Portland’s first sports bar dedicated to video game enthusiasts.

Emerick Architects is the lead designer for the facility that will cater to people who prefer watching action in the form of pixels instead of linebackers.

鈥淭he model for this is a sports bar,鈥� co-owner Justin Green said. 鈥淲e will have TVs and a stage for hosting (video game) tournaments. We will show tournaments from all over the world.鈥�

Permits will be sought soon. Project manager Keith Daily will lead Emerick Architects’ design team.

鈥淲e will submit for the permits in February and see how long the city takes,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think they can be open sometime in the summer for sure.鈥�

Turning the downtown space, at 424 S.W. Fourth Ave., into a bar won’t be a huge challenge, Daily said.

鈥淏ig thing is to get it transferred into a bar pub,鈥� he said.

The team will have to add some plumbing and bathroom facilities, Daily acknowledged. Plus, a full kitchen will be created.

Like any sports bar, TVs will be a big part of patrons’ experience. Plans are for the bar to televise live gaming tournaments from around the world. Structurally, the space is already capable of handling the bar’s electricity, wiring and WiFi needs.

鈥淭he place has good bones,鈥� Daily said. 鈥淲e are going with a really simple design. When you have that many activities going on, you don’t want to have a lot of other stuff going on with the design.鈥�

Patrons will find a stage that can be used for tournaments, along with computers at various stations around the bar for people to play games.

鈥淲e came up with this in 2015,鈥� co-owner Jeff Hotes said. 鈥淏oth of us have a love for service and gaming. This is also a chance to showcase eSports.鈥�

Games played on electronic devices such as video game consoles, computers or tablets have become a spectator sport in recent years. Tournaments can have prize pools that total millions of dollars. The Pacific-12 Conference last year became the first college conference to allow schools to field sanctioned eSports teams.

Tournaments in Las Vegas draw thousands of spectators, and sometimes are televised. This has led to development of bars where people can play video games or watch others play them.

When Green and Hotes first came up with the idea for Outrage, they planned to work out a franchise agreement with a European eSports company. Green went to Paris and Berlin to see how such bars could be run.

鈥淚t didn’t work because of the different franchising laws between the U.S. and Europe,鈥� Green said. 鈥淚t’s also a different bar culture in Europe. So we had to look more to the U.S. bar scene for ideas.鈥�

Neither Green nor Hotes has previous bar experience, but both believe there is a market for an eSports bar in Portland.

鈥淎 lot of it is focused to the PC games,鈥� Green said. 鈥淭he fighting game community is a big target for these kinds of tournaments, but we don’t have a set market. People will be able to play whatever games they want. It just depends on what the community wants.鈥�

Though Outrage will serve as a tournament venue, Green and Hotes also believe it will appeal to people aren’t hard-core gamers.

鈥淭here are going to be a lot of people that play causally,鈥� Green said. 鈥淧ortland State (University) has some gaming groups. We see it as a place for people who just want to have a drink and play some games.鈥�