Sphere, Part 1

 

[When the new Las Vegas entertainment venue Sphere opened on 29 September, I’d never even heard of it.  I obviously missed the memo.  I had a look on the ’Net and saw that there’d been major coverage in the press, both online and in print, for several years, since before ground was broken almost exactly five years earlier. 

[There was talk about the plans for the structure, its design and construction, the technology that would be incorporated, and every other aspect of the future spherical building.  I decided to do a post like the ones I did for Arena Stage’s and MoMA’s remodeling (26 November 2011 and 1 January 2020, respectively) and the Signature Center’s and Blackfriars’ construction (18 February 2012 and 18 November 2009)—a description of the architecture/construction and the tech as well as its function as a performance venue. 

[I’m not a techie—in fact, I’m half a luddite—so this assignment necessitated a lot of online research.  I started writing the report, the first part (of two) of which is below, on 12 October, and I hope ROTters find it interesting and informative.  Maybe it’ll even answer some questions you may have.

[Let me make one thing clear at the outset: this won’t be a review of U2:UV, the rock concert that initiated Sphere, or any other performance or event that’s taken place at the venue.  It’s strictly about the performance and event space itself.]

This is pretty much the antithesis of any accepted, traditional rock ‘n’ roll orthodoxy.  It is also the natural human reaction to just about any or all of “U2:UV Live at Sphere Las Vegas,” the greatest-show-on-earth that opened Friday night in an enormous dome just off the Strip.  The just-over-two-hour show marks the apotheosis of a bigger-is-better ethos that has regularly occurred throughout the band’s career, and which they are not about to give up now that they’re in their 60s for any back-to-basics false modesty.  The group that has spent so much of its recording output urging you to think about God, and other only slightly less weighty matters, is in Sin City mostly to make you say: “Oh my God.”  And we can vouch that we were hearing that utterance, from people above, below and around us, in a kind of reactive, quadrophonic effect that nearly matched Sphere’s vaunted 22nd-century sound system.

That’s what Chris Willman of Variety said in the opening of his review of U2’s concert at Sphere in Las Vegas on Friday, last 29 September.  U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere was the inaugural show at the new performance venue at the Venetian resort, just off the Las Vegas Strip.  The opening performance was witnessed by the likes of LeBron James, Oprah Winfrey, Andre Agassi, Jeff Bezos, Bryan Cranston, Snoop Dogg, and Paul McCartney.

Now, I’m not going to report on the Irish rock band’s performance—I’m not qualified to do that, even if I’d been there—but I’ll try to document what Sphere is: its architecture and construction, its technology, its impact on Vegas, its effectiveness as a performance space, and its influence on the entertainment scene at large. 

(For readers interested in the reviews of U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere, which focuses on the band’s album Achtung Baby [Island Records, 1991], there are plenty published by qualified music writers available online.  You can start with Willman’s Variety review, “U2 Takes to Playing in the Round (the Very, Very Round) at Las Vegas’ Sphere With Spectacular Results,” at U2's Sphere Opening Night Lives Up to the Hyperbole: Concert Review (variety.com).)

So, then: what precisely is Sphere?  Why’s it noteworthy?

Sphere’s a project of the live entertainment and media company Sphere Entertainment Co., formerly Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp.  In addition to the entertainment venue, Sphere Entertainment operates MSG Networks, regional (chiefly the Mid-Atlantic states) cable TV sports and entertainment channels, as well as a companion streaming service; MSG GO, producer of live sports content and other programming; and Tao Group Hospitality, a global entertainment, dining, and nightlife company.

First, let’s tackle the name.  (If Sphere Entertainment is successful in Vegas, this could be significant as they’re planning more of these structures around the world, starting with London.  It may, thus, become a brand name.)  Is it “The Sphere” or just “Sphere”?

Well, it looks to me like it’s the latter.  While Wikipedia and several press outlets (see the Washington Post, 9 July 2023) call the structure “The Sphere” or “the Sphere,” the venue’s own website and the New York Times consistently call it “Sphere”—without an article (except in phrases like “the Sphere experience” or “the Sphere show”).  That seems definitive to me, supported by Variety, which more often than not calls the structure “Sphere.”  I’ll go with that.

One contrarian online writer, Steven Hyden of UPROXX, an entertainment and popular culture news website, proclaims, “I understand that the ‘correct’ way to refer to the Sphere is simply ‘Sphere.’  But I am going to continue with ‘the Sphere,’ because 1) it just feels better and 2) it seems way less Orwellian.  Or should I say Bradbury-ian?”

Hyden is, I presume, referring, first, to George Orwell’s 1949 dystopian novel, 1984.  His second reference is to Ray Bradbury’s short story originally published as “The World the Children Made” in the 23 September 1950 issue of the Saturday Evening Post and then republished under its current name, “The Veldt,” in the 1951 anthology The Illustrated Man.  Hyden reports that James Dolan, the CEO of Madison Square Garden Entertainment and executive chairman of MSG Networks who conceived Sphere, has said he was inspired by the story.

(Because the structure’s name isn’t securely established yet in people’s or journalists’ minds, many media outlets are calling it “the Sphere.”  So, readers, in quotations in this article, you’ll see both “Sphere and “the Sphere” interchangeably.  I can’t avoid that, but don’t get confused.

(For instance, in addition to Hyden, the New Yorker’s Jackson Arn, the magazine’s art critic, introduces the structure as “The Sphere, a.k.a. Sphere, a.k.a. the Sphere at the Venetian,” and then proceeds to call it “the Sphere” throughout his critique.

(Keep in mind, too, that ‘sphere,’ with a small s, is still the common name for a round, three-dimensional, generic object such as a ball or globe.  The word will show up frequently in this report because, as the entertainment structure’s name implies, its shape is a sphere.)

Sphere is, in fact, currently the largest sphere-shaped building in the world at 516 feet or 157 meters in diameter.

(For the curious, the Avicii Arena in Stockholm, at 362.2 feet/110.4 meters is the second largest spherical structure, but if the London Sphere meets its planned specifications when completed, at 393.7 feet/120 meters, would surpass it.  For U.S. chauvinists, Spaceship Earth at Epcot in Walt Disney World in Florida, with a diameter of 165 feet/50 meters, is currently the sixth largest and the Perisphere, of the Trylon and Perisphere at New York’s 1939 World’s Fair, dismantled in 1941, is fifth at 180 feet/55 meters in diameter.

(If you’re wondering about the Unisphere, with a diameter of 120 feet/37 meters, the symbol of the 1964 New York World’s Fair and a permanent feature of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York, it isn’t a building, but a giant sculpture.  See my post on Rick On Theater, “A Helluva Town, Part 2,” 18 August 2011)

Sphere’s also, as one website declares, “one of the world’s unique structures.  It’s also a perfect fit—and an up-the-ante—for the restless, nonstop, glittering shit show that is Vegas.”

To be precise, the Vegas “pleasure dome,” as the New Yorker’s Arn dubs it, “is not, technically speaking, a sphere but a spherical cap, a ball with the bottom sliced off.”  For the sake of convenience and verbal simplicity, I’ll just call it a sphere or a globe.

To be more accurate, Sphere isn’t just a spherical building, it’s a geodesic, constructed on the same principals as geodesic domes.  (Most of the large sphere-shaped structures extant around the world are geodesics, I believe.)  The spherical shape is formed by tessellating triangles (obscured now by the overlay of the LED screens, but clearly visible as Sphere was going up).

If you look at the many early photos of the construction in progress—they’re all over the ’Net—you’ll see that the exoskeleton is made up of hundreds of interlocking triangles to create the 360° shape and structure of Sphere. 

The triangular elements of a geodesic are architecturally rigid and distribute the stress throughout the structure, making geodesics capable of supporting very heavy loads for their size.  In essence, a geodesic structure is extremely strong and stable compared to other kinds of curved edifices.

(Geodesic is both a noun and an adjective—there’s also a synonymous adjective, geodetic—which is derived from geodesy, the science concerned with determining the shape and size of the earth and the exact position of points on its surface.  The term has since been generalized to the geometry of any curved surface.)

As long as we’ve started with metrics, lets go ahead. 

As I noted, Sphere measures 516 feet (157 meters) across at its widest point and 366 feet (112 meters) high, and the exterior, called the Exosphere, is 580,000 square feet (54,000 square meters), covered in LED displays.  (According to the creators, that can be seen from space—but I don’t know if anyone’s actually checked that out.)  Sphere stands on an 18-acre (784,080-square foot or 72,843-square meter) site contributed by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation.

The Sphere project was announced on or about 14 February 2018.  At that time, the structure was known as the MSG Sphere because Madison Square Garden was originally the partner of Las Vegas Sands.  The site is east of the Venetian Las Vegas resort, an 8-minute, mile-and-a-half drive by a tortuous route.  There’s a pedestrian walkway directly from the Venetian Convention and Expo Center, associated with the resort, though reports are that it’s very slow and crowded after an event.

There’s limited parking at Sphere itself, about 300 vehicles, so visitors are expected to park at the garages of the Venetian, the Pallazzo (part of the Venetian complex), or the Venetian Expo.  The construction of a new Las Vegas Monorail station for Sphere and the Venetian was approved in 2018, but the Coronavirus shutdown halted the plans and no schedule for restarting the project has been announced.

From the announcement on, the control of the project got complicated to follow, as businesses and properties kept changing hands.  In 2022, Apollo Global Management purchased the Venetian, opened by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation (to replace the demolished Sands Hotel and Casino) in 1999, and became MSG's new partner on the Sphere project, replacing Las Vegas Sands.  As part of the sale, the land beneath the Venetian and the Sphere was purchased by yet another company.

Then on 20 April 2023, Sphere Entertainment Co. spun off from Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. and took its new name.  (MSG Entertainment continues to operate, though Sphere Entertainment owns approximately 33% of its outstanding shares.)

Sphere was designed by Populous Holdings, Inc., a global architectural and design practice specializing in sports facilities, arenas, entertainment venues, and convention centers.  MSG initially estimated the project cost at $1.2 billion.  

Two years later, the company said the price tag had gone up to $1.66 billion because of design changes.  The expense continued to increase, eventually passing $2 billion due to the COVID-generated worldwide supply-chain disruptions and the accompanying inflation surge.  

With a final price tag of $2.3 billion, it’s the most expensive entertainment venue in Las Vegas history, beating out the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium, a domed football arena in Paradise, Nevada, which opened in 2020. 

(Paradise is an unincorporated township of Clark County, Nevada.  It’s adjacent to, but not part of, the city of Las Vegas, also in Clark County.  Most people who visit the Las Vegas Strip—where Sphere is located, along with the Venetian—don't realize that they are technically not within the Las Vegas city limits at all.)

Ground was broken for Sphere on 27 September 2018.  Excavation began in March 2019 and the 21-foot-deep (6.4 meters) basement, where a VIP club, as well as back-stage facilities, are located, was started around May.  There are eight above-ground floors. 

Perhaps the most spectacular construction feat of the project was creating the framework for the dome of Sphere.  In order to achieve full coverage of the LED panels on the Exosphere, the engineers had to create precise contact between the panels and Sphere’s exoskeleton.  That necessitated a steel compression ring that forms the spherical shape of the building.

The compression ring sits at the top of the sphere and holds the structure in place so that all the component parts remain in the exact relation to one another without deviation.  As I understand it, this is necessary both so that the LED panels fit precisely onto the framework so that the Exosphere gives the impression of a seamless skin, and that the many parts of Sphere’s frame form the spherical shape. 

This maneuver was an amazingly complex operation taking many months of planning, preparation, and execution.  The compression ring itself was a monumental assemblage: a 170-ton steel ring—more than two Boeing 757’s (that’s what Air Force One is)—with a diameter of 136 feet (41½ meters). 

Because of its size and weight, the compression ring had to be assembled on the construction site.  It took crews three weeks to assemble it and weld and bolt the prefabricated pieces together on the ground.  Then it had to be hoisted into place atop a temporary 285-foot-tall tower at the center of the structure.  (Once construction of Sphere’s roof started, crews disassembled the tower.)

The prodigious lift was accomplished with the use of the world’s fourth-largest crawler crane, a huge crane mounted on caterpillar tracks, like a bulldozer.  This piece of equipment had its own saga.

In February 2020, the crane arrived on the construction site, shipped across the Atlantic Ocean from Belgium.  It weighs 869 tons and the boom can extend 580 feet high and has a load capacity of up to 1,760 tons.

When the crane was delivered by ship to southern California in January, it was broken apart and loaded onto 120 semis for the 340-mile journey to Las Vegas.  A separate crane was needed to reassemble it, a job that took 18 days.

The crane lifted the compression ring onto its temporary perch in February 2021.  Construction workers used a hydraulic lift on top of the tower to calibrate the steel ring’s exact position before emplacing the roof trusses, dividing the dome undercarriage into 32 pie slices, which serve as the skeletal support for Sphere’s steel dome—which weighs 13,000 tons.

This record illustrates vice president of construction for MSG Entertainment (now Sphere Entertainment) Nick Tomasino’s assertion that the building of Sphere “has every engineering and construction challenge that one venue could have . . . .”

The dome was “topped off” on 18 June 2021 and on 21 August, the company announced that work on the globe’s interior had begun.  Construction of the concrete-and-steel dome was finished in late October and work on the interior framework continued into 2022.

On 24 May 2022, “the last piece of the gigantic three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle” that is Sphere was fitted into its Exosphere.  Crews raised an evergreen tree and an American flag, the traditional symbols of the “topping off” celebration at a construction project when the last and highest section is completed, on the summit of the globe while more than 1,000 Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. employees and construction workers cheered the milestone event.

Sphere was slated to open in 2021, but construction was suspended between March and August 2020 due to supply disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic.  The venue opened on 29 September 2023 with the U2 show.  (The band’s residency is scheduled to consist of 47 appearances between the première show and 18 February 2024.)

The project began with 400 construction workers and eventually grew to employ an estimated 3,500 local workers.  Sphere Entertainment projected that the facility will provide 4,400 permanent jobs.  The estimated annual infusion by Sphere into the local economy is $730 million, generating in the range of $48 million a year in tax revenue for the State of Nevada and the Las Vegas metropolitan area.

Now, let’s talk about amenities.  It seems that Sphere isn’t brimming with them. 

There are 23 luxury suites, but Sphere Entertainment hasn’t released the prices for the suites, so I haven’t been able to pin down their cost.  I don’t even know if Sphere will be leasing the suites on a yearly basis, selling them like condominiums, or renting them per event—or some combination of all three.

(Why Sphere Entertainment is keeping prices and costs so sub rosa—even the drink price list is only known because it was leaked on Reddit—I don’t know.  Maybe they haven’t settled on what the market will bear, or maybe they’re just trying to generate mystery and buzz.)

If the suites are leased or sold, the costs will certainly be in the mid- and high six figures.  Las Vegas is generally an expensive city to play in.  If they’re rented by the event, the prices would probably be in the five-figure range, however.  (Suites, for example, at Madison Square Garden, the New York City arena of the original parent company of Sphere, rent for $8,000-60,000, depending on the game.)

In addition to the various prices of the luxury accommodations, I wasn’t able to track down any concrete information on what they offer.  Neither the luxury suites nor the so-called VIP club are described by either Sphere Entertainment or any press outlets I could find.  (There are photos of MSG’s club seating areas, but none of Sphere’s.)

I assume that they offer waiter service for food and drinks, possibly complimentary non-alcoholic beverages, private bathrooms, and comfortable surroundings, based on what other venues’ provide for the extra cost—but I don’t know that for sure and I don’t know what Sphere’s luxury accommodations may have that varies from the standard offerings.

Aside from the luxury suites, a minimum of food and drink is about all the venue offers outside of the entertainment for which it was built.  (I don’t see the tech that supports the entertainment function of Sphere as “amenities,” but I’ll be getting to that soon enough.)

Ticket prices for Sphere vary widely depending on how close you sit (or stand) to the stage, when you go, what the event is, and where you buy them.  U2 tix start in the low three figures and can go up to the mid-four figures.  Other events start as low as about $50 and can range up to a little under $500.  According to reports, Sphere’s admission prices aren’t out of line with other premier venues across the country.

(There are other events at Sphere at the same time as the series of U2 concerts are being performed.  One is The Sphere Experience, an interactive encounter with holographic art installations, a chat with interactive robots, and “22nd century technology.” 

(This is a two-part program that begins when you enter the venue.  The first hour begins in the Atrium, where, through immersive technology created specifically for Sphere, visitors are intended to gain a better understanding of how technology amplifies our human potential.

(The Sphere Experience then continues in the main performance venue, known as the Bowl, for a multi-sensory cinematic experience, Darren Aronofsky’s Postcard from Earth [débuted 6 October 2023].  This a 2023 film directed by Aronofsky, a filmmaker whose work is noted for being surreal and often disturbing, created expressly for Sphere.  Aronofsky says of his film: “Postcard from Earth is a sci-fi journey deep into our future as our descendants reflect on our shared home.”

(The film is an immersive exploration of planet Earth through the eyes of two human beings played by Brandon Santana and Zaya [Ribeiro].  It was designed and shot specifically for Sphere.  The 4D film features 270 degrees of viewing experience, climate control, shaking seats, and scents to create an immersive environment that tells the story of life on Earth.)

Once you’re inside the building—and by the way, once in you can’t leave and come back: reentry isn’t permitted—there are some rules of behavior; check the “Code of Conduct” list on Sphere’s FAQ page: FAQs | Policies & Ticketing | Sphere (thespherevegas.com).  Here are some other factoids regarding the “Sphere experience”:

There’s food and drink (including alcohol and sodas) available for sale on the Concourse, but it’s “food court” service.  There are counters for ordering and paying and there are self-service concessions for those who don’t want to stand on line, but there are no seats.  Prices are high, but not more than other sites similar to Sphere.  Quality is debatable: some visitors have shrugged it off, others have registered complaints online.

There are many eateries of various types in the immediate area of Sphere, but you can’t bring outside food or beverages into the venue.  If you want a real meal when you go to an event at Sphere, you should probably plan to eat either before or after the show and rely on the in-house food selections for snacks to hold off the munchies (if you’re ready to pay $7 for a Coke).

The only food-related items you may bring into Sphere is an empty soft plastic bottle.  (Glass and metal containers are not allowed.)  You can fill it with cold water from the drinking fountains around the facility and bring it into the auditorium.  No other food or beverage is permitted in the auditorium.

As far as I can tell, Sphere doesn’t, at least as yet, have merchandise for sale.  Some performers, such as U2, will have merch on display, but that’s on them.  Sphere just provides the space on the Concourse for the display and sales.  (I lie: Sphere does offer a “Souvenir Soda”—whatever that turns out to be—but it’ll cost you $14.  A “fountain” soda is half that.  So’s Path Water.)

Those seven-buck drinks are the cheapest things on the Sphere drink menu.  It was posted on the social media website Reddit.  A single drink of “Premium” liquor will cost you $15, “Deluxe” is advertised for $16, and “Ultra” is $19.  (You can get a “double,” but it’ll cost you . . . well, double.)  Domestic beer goes for $18, and premium lists for $19.  Wine, margaritas, and palomas (tequila, lime juice, and a grapefruit-flavored soda) are priced at $20, while the “Specialty Cocktail” costs $30.

As reported in Parade, the nationwide Sunday newspaper magazine, many visitors agreed that "this is price gouging at its finest . . . but it’s exactly in line with how every other venue gouges you," while others pointed out that Sphere’s prices are similar to venues in other cities, noting that the beers offered at entertainment facilities like Sphere are usually larger than normal (12 ounces), like 20 or 24 ounces.

One Reddit comment responded to the revelations that Sphere’s in an exceptional position as a new and advanced site and “is unique and can do whatever they want.”

Here’s an important tip: Sphere is entirely cashless.  You can’t pay for anything with money.  The venue takes credit cards (I assume all of them, but I don’t know that for sure), debit cards, or “mobile” (by which I presume they mean, your phone).  There are cell-phone chargers around the building and “reverse ATM’s” that will convert cash to debit cards.  I don’t know what happens to excess cash left on these cards when the show’s over.

(There are “trained” staff personnel in the facility who can assist visitors, and I assume they can answer questions about all this stuff—but don’t be surprised if the answer is “I don’t know”!  Upon entering Sphere’s grand atrium, visitors will encounter five lifelike, AI-equipped humanoid robots—all named Aura—that are programmed to interact with guests and reveal the marvels of Sphere to them.  I don’t know how extensive the programming is—human techies are standing by—but it might be fun to find out.)

[This concludes Part 1 of my report on Sphere.  Part 2 will be posted on Wednesday, 27 December.  I hope you will all come back then for my coverage of the technology of Sphere and some of the assessments, both from professional reviewers and from ordinary entertainment-seekers, of how well the Las Vegas event space stood up to its hype.]