The Las Vegas Sphere was supposed to be the future of live entertainment. But just over a year into its run, New York Post writer Josh Kosman explains why the math ain’t mathin’. This episode was produced by Amanda Lewellyn, edited by Amina Al-Sadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Andrea Kristinsdottir and Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Sean Rameswaram. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members The realistic eyeball that kept watch over Las Vegas was one of Sphere's early breakout hits. Photo by K.M. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What is The Sphere and why is it significant?
The first thing you need to know about The Sphere in Las Vegas is don't call it that. It's sphere, not the sphere. Lose the the. But everyone calls it The Sphere, so we will too. The Sphere opened just over a year ago. They said it would be the future of entertainment, and some people go and really do feel that way.
But others, including those of us at Today Explained, are wondering if this whole operation is sustainable. So on the show today, we're going to look back at one year of the sphere. From Bono to Fish to Dead & Co to the Eagles to that documentary that Darren Aronofsky made to the upcoming EDM New Year's Eve rave that they're throwing.
And we're going to ask whether this really could be the future of fun or... Maybe it's just another Las Vegas bust.
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Today, Explain talked to a whole bunch of people about their experiences going to shows at the Sphere, and that is what you're about to hear.
It's funny because obviously Vegas is famous for glitz and lights and flashy stuff that's designed to catch your attention. And at first, before I had seen it in person, I thought, well, this is just going to feel like a heightened version of that. But it looks like a spaceship landed in the middle of Vegas. It's just wild looking.
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Chapter 2: What experiences do attendees have at The Sphere?
The first part of the experience is making your way from the Venetian along this long corridor or skyway to the actual, you know, the base of the sphere. You know, there's different sections of that, but one of them is this sort of seemingly endless carpeted hallway that I remember as being sort of red and gold, like a, you know... like the Kremlin or like one of Saddam Hussein's palaces.
You know, it's sort of garish, sort of ugly, endless, every... 40 yards or whatever to your right is another giant convention hall. The scale of it is bizarre. And you're in this river of other people.
And I just remember on the first night, this like extreme nervous energy among everyone, like just no one knew what to expect. And what was really cool about it is that, you know, in the fish world, there's people that have been to like hundreds of shows. And this was the first time for everyone, including the band.
But it spills you back outside, so suddenly you go from being in the air-conditioned Saddam Hussein Palace out onto this, you know, 110-degree hardpan asphalt lot.
where I was surprised by how it looked up close. It almost looks like a giant light bright. It's like these kind of pretty big single lights and pegs kind of coming out.
My sort of engineer boy brain was sort of going into overdrive. Like, ah, how does that work? That's amazing. Look at that. Look at that.
My first impression walking in there was, how are they going to get all these people through these lines fast enough to actually make the show? And I mean, within 10, 15 minutes, everybody was through.
But then once you're actually inside, I apologize for using like sci-fi metaphors, but it really does have that feeling like it's just the way it's lit. It's kind of like dark, but there's things are kind of glowing. There's escalators that take you up to the higher levels. There was ambient music, this like a special U2 mix that they had made that was kind of playing in the lobby area.
So when you first enter the lobby and get into the foyer, there's a bunch of animatronic robots that are interactive that you can speak to, ask questions, and they'll respond.
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Chapter 3: How do visuals enhance the concert experience at The Sphere?
keys coming from straight above it did you all hear that too one thing about the sphere venue is that it's a lot more controlled than a normal uh dead and company experience would be there were some people smoking but not as many it was not like i've been to shows where you couldn't see the stage because there was so much smoke in between you and the stage that it was hard to see
very different than like a Madison Square Garden fish show where, you know, you come home like smelling like an ashtray. There was sort of a classy feel to it. You know, everyone was kind of on their best behavior.
I think this idea of like the immersion that it represents, I do think that that's the future of entertainment, but I'm afraid what I really fear is that the real future is sort of each of us plugged into our own
virtual reality feed, whether it's with goggles or glasses or even whatever brain projections we can, you know, we can project onto the inside of our eyeballs, if that makes any sense, without having to go anywhere or be with other people.
And we just kind of, you know, we'll be, you know, as Father John Misty put it, you know, making love to Taylor Swift and the Oculus Rift, you know, and everybody will have their own individual
Curated fake reality, you know be like the matrix will just be like floating in our in some sort of weird amniotic state and feeding our minds with whatever entertainment we want, I mean we're kind of halfway there already, but so I'd be happy if the Sphere was as dystopic as it got. But I fear that's not the case.
I don't think it's the future, I think it's now. I think it is the best... I haven't been to every venue in the world, but I can't imagine there's a venue right now that delivers a better live music experience than Sphere.
And if this even progresses and gets better and better and better, I don't know how it could get any more intense.
I don't know that I would say I mean, first of all, I don't even I don't think they're necessarily making money, nor who knows when they ever will. So in that sense, I don't know that it's the future. But I think if you're a band, like it should be one of your goals or one of your stops.
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Chapter 4: What are the challenges facing The Sphere's future?
Milo, she throws me like a rubber ball.
Josh Cosman's beat is business at the New York Post, which somehow makes him one of the foremost authorities on the sphere in Las Vegas.
Well, we're sort of a national paper. Not sort of. We're a national paper. And certainly media and entertainment are important to us. And James Dolan, Jimmy Dolan, owns the sphere. And Jimmy Dolan also owns the New York Knicks and New York Rangers and is quite an iconic and somewhat disliked New York figure. So he makes it interesting for us.
We asked Josh to tell us how the sphere came to be.
This has been Jimmy Dolan's dream for several years, perhaps five to ten years. He is very into music. He plays in a band.
This next song is the title song of our record, and it is called Ballyhoo.
In fact, he opened for the Eagles at one time. People who know him would say that his true love is music, perhaps more than even owning the sports teams.
I am now going to make a ballet room for you.
So he's had this idea of this one-of-a-kind technologically advanced sphere for a long time. He thought it would cost a billion dollars to build. It ended up costing 2.3 billion. It was a big, big cost overrun. And that really begins the interesting story of the sphere. Because his dream, to a degree, has been realized. Within a year, the sphere is quite iconic.
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Chapter 5: How does The Sphere compare to traditional concert venues?
So not just here, really, at any big arena. the artist will make anywhere from 80 to 100% of concert revenues. Then the arena itself might make money off parking, which there's not much here at the Sphere, or merchandise. And here, the added problem is U2, for example,
It cost them more than $10 million to build a technological set that would match the music because there is no other arena like the Sphere. So Dolan agreed to pay more than $10 million to produce their show. Then during their show itself, U2 made roughly 90% of ticket sales. That's not leaving a lot left over. And that's a real problem because the real way Dolan makes money is these movies.
Those he can make money off of. But the concerts, not much.
But it's funny you say that because I was in Vegas for a weekend where there weren't any concerts. There was just this movie, this sort of, you know, climate documentary made by Darren Aronofsky. And I couldn't find, you know— reviews from movie critics, probably because they couldn't all make it to Vegas, but you could find reviews from people who went to see it and they were scathing reviews.
It is simply not worth the money.
It's 2024. I'll need more than mountain visuals to be impressed.
The film itself is indescribably bad. I feel entitled to compensation at this point.
It did not scream, this is the future of this sphere's business model.
No, and the problem is these movies cost a lot to produce because you're producing them for this one-of-a-kind sphere. So they're about to spend or they're spending about $80 million on remaking The Wizard of Oz.
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Chapter 6: Why are only older bands being booked at The Sphere?
Well, that's a great question, Sean. And I think we're at an inflection point. And I think what makes the sphere such an interesting story is that on the one hand, it's worked. You know, like your friend said, that Phish concert was the most amazing concert he said he's ever seen. And it's Phish. I shouldn't say that. So it's kind of this dilemma that I think Dolan is facing right now.
I have this amazing arena. I have this amazing... but I don't know how to make it, forget profitable, I don't know how to even make it viable. You know, a typical arena of 18,000 people, you could throw sports teams in there. You can't have sports teams here.
The UFC held an event there that they say they generated 22 million in revenue, so it was a success, but they also say they'll never come back. You know, they've said that publicly. So obviously it wasn't too much of a success. So do I think it has a chance? Yes, because it is an amazing facility.
But if you look at the stock price, you look at the market cap, it's less than $2.3 billion, significantly less. Market investors are telling you this is a failure. Yet, it is really iconic. Now, if you think of Las Vegas, and you say, okay, give me, you know, knee-jerk reaction, give me three iconic things in Las Vegas, three iconic venues, this is probably one of them. Yeah.
I love a mixed bag.
Yeah, this is an interesting mixed bag, and how Dolan pivots will be a really interesting question.
Josh Kosman, New York Post, Pura Vida, thanks to Annie Phillips and Cameron Laws for their help with today's show, which was produced by Amanda Llewellyn, who had a pretty good time at the Sphere when she went this year with her dad. Amanda was edited by Amina Alsadi, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, and mixed by Andrea Christen's daughter and Patrick Boyd. This was Today Explained.
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