{"id":23613,"date":"2026-03-11T04:06:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.netgear.com\/hub\/?page_id=23613"},"modified":"2026-03-11T07:35:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:35:41","slug":"netgear-now-hetma-on-e-sports-scale-and-why-higher-ed-av-is-now-its-problem","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.netgear.com\/hub\/business\/av\/netgear-now-hetma-on-e-sports-scale-and-why-higher-ed-av-is-now-its-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"NETGEAR Now: HETMA on Esports, Scale, and Why Higher Ed AV is Now IT\u2019s Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"    <div class=\"table-of-content bg-gray 23613\">\n        <p><strong>IN THIS ARTICLE<\/strong><\/p>\n        <ul>\n                        <li><a href=\"#topic1\">Esports is bigger than the NBA, NFL, MLB, and soccer combined<\/a><\/li>\n                        <li><a href=\"#topic2\">Experience how NETGEAR AV solutions elevate esports performance and connectivity<\/a><\/li>\n                    <\/ul>\n    <\/div>\n        <div id=\"topic1\" class=\"skip-item\">\n                        <h2>Esports is bigger than the NBA, NFL, MLB, and soccer combined<\/h2>\n                <p>Joe Way from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hetma.org\/\">HETMA<\/a> (Higher Education Technology Managers Alliance, 10,000+ members, $25B+ annual spend) delivers a reality check: esports is bigger than the NBA, NFL, MLB, and soccer combined. And if your university doesn\u2019t have an esports program, you\u2019re behind. In this episode of NETGEAR Now, we talk about the unique challenges of higher ed at scale; buying in hundreds, across 5,400+ US colleges, with budget cuts forcing \u201cdo more with less.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Joe explains why AV departments no longer exist (it\u2019s all IT now), how NETGEAR switches earned street cred with campus network teams, and why E-sports networks can\u2019t go down when sponsors and revenue are on the line.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Kmm-yfiN6b8?si=EjhcUy3vZxSJQXsY\" width=\"853\" height=\"505\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n    <\/div>\n        <div id=\"topic2\" class=\"skip-item\">\n                        <h2>Experience how NETGEAR AV solutions elevate esports performance and connectivity<\/h2>\n                <p>Visit our website to see the switches that support esports.<\/p>\n<div class=\"hs-cta-embed hs-cta-simple-placeholder hs-cta-embed-207665517270\" style=\"max-width: 100%; max-height: 100%; width: 260px; height: 50.390625px;\" data-hubspot-wrapper-cta-id=\"207665517270\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-na2.hubspot.com\/web-interactives\/public\/v1\/track\/redirect?encryptedPayload=AVxigLJmwXrklZNG3x3dQ7tAAZQIgIsg1shDInvQ9VBbiHiZoCynUV94JMwOO0IxN3gIBFfSMSqx%2B6JTye6vQ0e3VWJvBOXvIOG8DLOj5CfIo65QGp3rxJtB4xP5%2BPKW8bYLWwhu%2F4g7Hlj8lPIBaJNHla0nSXV98AA3eiK4vTzTig%2FRyzOvY4%2F6ZA%3D%3D&amp;webInteractiveContentId=207665517270&amp;portalId=242128791\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"height: 100%; width: 100%; object-fit: fill;\" src=\"https:\/\/hubspot-no-cache-na2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com\/cta\/default\/242128791\/interactive-207665517270.png\" alt=\"NETGEAR AV SOLUTIONS\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Discover everything you need to know about AVoIP and building an AV network.<\/p>\n<div class=\"hs-cta-embed hs-cta-simple-placeholder hs-cta-embed-207830330055\" style=\"max-width: 100%; max-height: 100%; width: 260px; height: 50.390625px;\" data-hubspot-wrapper-cta-id=\"207830330055\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-na2.hubspot.com\/web-interactives\/public\/v1\/track\/redirect?encryptedPayload=AVxigLKSEFYKgJJTOMNvVAoTPHd9IwVGVWcxfJGIQzPKPmf3kqu5eqnYdhOP3e5kL1JoHsd%2FyIg6PADR9eEN3LCOpzskNKTQ6xIB5bNNW7QLlQC0pKsNClFStn2fDSomLhGnkVYux9PpTd713XZ6AmvHA3Wog%2FezB50jMyKhiI08wVaPg%2B03H%2F3yJ0UKF15vzGWg94QPxEnqQzVW0v8tuA%3D%3D&amp;webInteractiveContentId=207830330055&amp;portalId=242128791\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"height: 100%; width: 100%; object-fit: fill;\" src=\"https:\/\/hubspot-no-cache-na2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com\/cta\/default\/242128791\/interactive-207830330055.png\" alt=\"NETGEAR ACADEMY\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Get free support for your AV project from our senior AV engineers.<\/p>\n<div class=\"hs-cta-embed hs-cta-simple-placeholder hs-cta-embed-207818050288\" style=\"max-width: 100%; max-height: 100%; width: 260px; height: 50.390625px;\" data-hubspot-wrapper-cta-id=\"207818050288\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-na2.hubspot.com\/web-interactives\/public\/v1\/track\/redirect?encryptedPayload=AVxigLKUcC7MvFJO38VFkiikPrbyTi5ziTD%2Bsks5hEF1CRkcAePeUZNCMs%2BsBP%2BY2U8cIT6tXv8JO55NBtLFe5AvfK30eFWc8x4uOUwan7MJfWKfbfF%2Fo6GHhRW%2B%2FENwGGjwZ5X%2BGqgoCBr6jvU04ZU%2B%2BqjEyic3pTh3hqhAUxB83SOOu05SEvjHa478erXywJDlsVXn4vGGotZKwRqtiUQ7uIDz1coFhLDV%2FqvOaJWao10aLECzKW9LdQ%3D%3D&amp;webInteractiveContentId=207818050288&amp;portalId=242128791\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"height: 100%; width: 100%; object-fit: fill;\" src=\"https:\/\/hubspot-no-cache-na2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com\/cta\/default\/242128791\/interactive-207818050288.png\" alt=\"CONTACT PROAV DESIGN\" \/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n\n\t\t\t<div\n\t\t\tclass=\"hs-form-frame\"\n\t\t\tdata-region=\"na2\"\n\t\t\tdata-form-id=\"de76be58-5099-46f2-9aa1-e0c67296e48a\"\n\t\t\tdata-portal-id=\"242128791\"\n\t\t\t >\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n    <\/div>\n    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":23617,"parent":6754,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/blog-wifi.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-23613","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>NETGEAR Now: HETMA on Esports, Scale, and Why Higher Ed AV is Now IT\u2019s Problem - NETGEAR Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Esports is transforming higher education. HETMA shares why AV is now IT and networks must scale reliably.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.netgear.com\/hub\/business\/av\/netgear-now-hetma-on-e-sports-scale-and-why-higher-ed-av-is-now-its-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"NETGEAR Now: HETMA on Esports, Scale, and Why Higher Ed AV is Now IT\u2019s Problem - NETGEAR Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Esports is transforming higher education. 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