Overwatch League and Call of Duty League teams owe Activision a huge amount of money

According to journalist Jacob Wolf, teams that bought franchise slots in the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League owe Activision Blizzard between $390 million and $420 million.

The franchise fees were initially delayed in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic and have been pushed back to fall 2022, according to The Washington Post. According to recent reports, contributions could be pushed back even further, until 2024.

Organizations that bought seats in the Call of Duty League paid $25 million or more, while the Overwatch League franchise was valued at $20 million. But this is the initial cost of slots in 2017, as well as further this amount increased proportionally.

After two years of delays and rescheduling of payments, the total amount owed to the publisher is between $390 million and $420 million. In the Call of Duty League, teams must pay an additional $22.5 million on average. So far, they have only made the initial payment, which is about $2.5 million. In turn, each of the 20 organizations in the Overwatch League owed the publisher between $6 million and $7.5 million. In total, all teams must pay about $120-150 million.

According to the report, Brandon Snow, former head of esports at Activision Blizzard, floated the idea of waiving franchise fees in the Overwatch League and Call of Duty League.

The Overwatch League and Call of Duty League have reportedly lost nearly all of their sponsors following a series of lawsuits alleging discrimination, sexual harassment and abuse of women in the workplace at Activision Blizzard. In addition, the debts of the clubs arose due to the disruption of plans to organize matches at home arenas. During the coronavirus pandemic and severe restrictions, the construction of several arenas actually stopped, and mass events, including LAN tournaments, were also banned.

Currently, the Overwatch League does not have a single partner, while the Call of Duty League is partnering with Zenni, Scuf, Mountain Dew and Aimlab.