A Spherical Experience

Last week, I waded into the dangerous waters of discussing the war between Israel and Hama s. It’s really between Israel and Iran, but the latter is using its proxies of Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and militias in Iraq and Syria to do its dirty work. The war broke out when Hamas attacked Israel and massacred 1,400 Israelis on October 7th. It just so happens that Heather and I had the great pleasure of seeing U2’s fourth show at the Sphere in Las Vegas on that same night. Sometimes, we need an escape from the tragedies taking place in the world, and boy, was this the ultimate escape.

The Sphere

For those of you not familiar with the Sphere, it was the brainchild of James Dolan, the very controversial, brash New York executive who controls Madison Square Garden, The New York Knicks, the New York Rangers, Radio City Music Hall, and Cablevision, to name his most well-known properties. Cablevision is how the money was made to purchase these entertainment assets, and his father was the one who created much of the wealth. There has been a perception that James Dolan did not have the talent that his dad had and that he has a chip on his shoulder for being perceived as a spoiled, silver-spoon kid. And he was always looking to prove that he could be his own man.

This is the introduction to an article and interview with Dolan in the New York Times from September 20, 2023, just before U2 kicked off its 25-night inaugural engagement (now extended to 36 nights) at the 17,600-seat arena.Last week, I waded into the dangerous waters of discussing the war between Israel and Hama s. It’s really between Israel and Iran, but the latter is using its proxies of Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and militias in Iraq and Syria to do its dirty work. The war broke out when Hamas attacked Israel and massacred 1,400 Israelis on October 7th. It just so happens that Heather and I had the great pleasure of seeing U2’s fourth show at the Sphere in Las Vegas on that same night. Sometimes, we need an escape from the tragedies taking place in the world, and boy, was this the ultimate escape.

The Sphere

For those of you not familiar with the Sphere, it was the brainchild of James Dolan, the very controversial, brash New York executive who controls Madison Square Garden, The New York Knicks, the New York Rangers, Radio City Music Hall, and Cablevision, to name his most well-known properties. Cablevision is how the money was made to purchase these entertainment assets, and his father was the one who created much of the wealth. There has been a perception that James Dolan did not have the talent that his dad had and that he has a chip on his shoulder for being perceived as a spoiled, silver-spoon kid. And he was always looking to prove that he could be his own man.

This is the introduction to an article and interview with Dolan in the New York Times from September 20, 2023, just before U2 kicked off its 25-night inaugural engagement (now extended to 36 nights) at the 17,600-seat arena.Last week, I waded into the dangerous waters of discussing the war between Israel and Hama s. It’s really between Israel and Iran, but the latter is using its proxies of Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and militias in Iraq and Syria to do its dirty work. The war broke out when Hamas attacked Israel and massacred 1,400 Israelis on October 7th. It just so happens that Heather and I had the great pleasure of seeing U2’s fourth show at the Sphere in Las Vegas on that same night. Sometimes, we need an escape from the tragedies taking place in the world, and boy, was this the ultimate escape.

The Sphere

For those of you not familiar with the Sphere, it was the brainchild of James Dolan, the very controversial, brash New York executive who controls Madison Square Garden, The New York Knicks, the New York Rangers, Radio City Music Hall, and Cablevision, to name his most well-known properties. Cablevision is how the money was made to purchase these entertainment assets, and his father was the one who created much of the wealth. There has been a perception that James Dolan did not have the talent that his dad had and that he has a chip on his shoulder for being perceived as a spoiled, silver-spoon kid. And he was always looking to prove that he could be his own man.

This is the introduction to an article and interview with Dolan in the New York Times from September 20, 2023, just before U2 kicked off its 25-night inaugural engagement (now extended to 36 nights) at the 17,600-seat arena.

Given this backdrop, it’s not unusual that someone like Dolan would want to get out from under his father’s long shadow and do something that was uniquely his so that he could show the world and himself that he is talented and very capable in his own right. This is how the writer framed Dolan’s mission.

But New York is not where his brain or his video monitor are focused. Mr. Dolan — son of Long Island, commander of beloved New York sports teams, and magnet for the type of caustic mockery that only New Yorkers are capable of expressing — is looking 2,500 miles southwest for respect, redemption and reputational rebirth.

It turns out that Dolan loves music and has his own band. He wanted to create a live experience that is beyond anything anyone has ever seen, heard, felt, and even smelled (yes, various aromas are part of the individual experience). The Sphere was started in 2018 and continued through the pandemic and had a budget of $1.3 billion. And like many construction projects, especially extremely complex ones, this one came in over budget to the tune of $1.1 billion. And, of course, the pandemic was also a big contributor to significant cost overruns.

The Sphere has 160,000 speakers and over 700,000 square feet of programmable video screens, equivalent to three football fields. The structure is striking and is now instantly a Las Vegas landmark. Here is one picture from the car near the facility as it pops up into the foreground.

And here is one from the grounds of the venue.

I read that the daily rate to advertise on the outside of the Sphere is $450,000 and $650,000 for the week. A great deal for the week! Along with that comes access to the Sphere’s team of 300 technical staff to help create, design, and implement mind-blowing ads. Given the huge investment in the arena, big advertising dollars are very much needed to help augment revenues from live events.

Here is a picture of me in the lower lobby of the venue. It definitely has a space-age feel to it. I must say the staff is extremely friendly, and it was a very enjoyable experience from a service standpoint.

Here is a picture of Heather and me that tried to capture the cathedral-like feeling and view of the apex of the Sphere.

Despite the venue being so large, it has a very intimate feel to it, especially from a sound perspective. There was a part of the show in which the band played acoustically, and Bono said that he needed to whisper because Lady Gaga was in the house. And when he whispered, it felt like you were in a theater of less than 1,000 people.

You can see from this picture how simple the stage was and how barebones it felt. That added to the intimacy. The band had to make sure that the music was always paramount while also doing its best to create an incredible visual experience, given the capabilities the venue provides. Given this, having a very minimalist stage made a lot of sense. It’s also easier for U2 as they only have three musicians and a singer with no augmentation from other singers or players.

When the visuals kicked in, they were really impressive. The next few pictures show the band with a few different backgrounds.

I was particularly impressed by how vivid and realistic this part of Las Vegas looked.

These next two show a more futuristic scene and how the sphere grows and comes closer to the audience.

Here is a close-up of one of the scenes, and it is a good depiction of the artistry and detail that can be shown on such a vast canvas. Here is a close-up of one of the scenes, and it is a good depiction of the artistry and detail that can be shown on such a vast canvas.

From a business model standpoint, the Sphere has some challenges in fully taking advantage of its incredible visual potential. Putting on a fully immersive show will require a lot of preparation, design work, creativity, and money. I believe that U2 and its team, in conjunction with the Sphere creative and technical teams, required a year or so to be able to put this show on. Thus, it’s not like dates can be easily filled up with relatively short notice. It not only requires the time and investment to prepare the visuals but to find acts that can sell out many nights to make the investment economical.

Dolan has said that it’s important for the business model that the Sphere controls much of the content on those days and nights when major bands are not performing. When he thought about deploying the company’s excess cash, he ruled out buying other venues but loved owning the content. Back to the article.

He thought about buying more venues, “but the venue business is not a great business,” he said.

He said that if a musical act performs at Madison Square Garden, there might be ticket sales of about $5 million per night, and the company takes just $600,000 or $700,000. And there is always a hustle for bookings. Plus, he said, once you own Madison Square Garden, “how are you going to beat that?”

The way to improve the economics of the venue business, he said, is to own the content — to keep as many aspects of the operation as possible directly under his own control. His inspiration was the “Christmas Spectacular ,” performed each year by the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall.

In its annual seven-week run, the show “pushes over a million people through the building,” he said. “Because we own both sides of the equation, all of the revenue comes to us, and that sustains Radio City Music Hall.”

The first self-produced content is Postcard from the Earth by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky. It will be interesting to see how well it does. I would absolutely go see it just for the experience.

As an aside, after the show, Heather and I were talking about what other bands we would like to see perform at the Sphere, and I mentioned Pearl Jam . Right after saying that, I saw a number of people about 20 rows in front of us looking up to the second level (our seats were under them, so we couldn’t see what was happening above us), and they were chanting, “Eddie, Eddie, Eddie.” I went down to ask who they saw, and they said Eddie Vedder, the lead singer of Pearl Jam! He showed his face just as I got there. I can only imagine what he was thinking as he watched U2 perform and how Pearl Jam might craft a show for the Sphere.

Because of all the pre-set visuals, there cannot be a fully spontaneous show. There can be parts of it that are light on the visuals, so the band can change up the setlist, but for the most part, it can’t change very much, which creates constraints that not every band would like to be bound by.

As we were walking back to the hotel after the show, Heather, who is very creative, said it’s no longer that people have to think outside of the box; they now have to think inside the sphere.? I loved that and thought it was brilliant. We need to open our minds to the incredible possibilities that exist out there and have our own spheres to create our own dynamic, immersive, immensely interesting worlds utilizing technology, storytelling, creativity, our gifts, etc.? Traveling and going to places like the Sphere help open up our minds to see greater possibilities for our lives than what we tend to find in our smaller worlds.?

I have to profess my admiration for James Dolan. He took a big risk financially and reputationally, and he ended up bringing to life an extraordinary new venue that would change entertainment forever. I hope it is a roaring success. What Steve Wynn did for Las Vegas in terms of taking a quantum leap by building far more expensive and lavish hotels and recognizing that there was a huge unaddressed and financially viable market for radically new and more upscale experiences, Dolan has done the same for entertainment. It’s a game changer without question, and the world is better off for people like Dolan really going for it to bring a powerful vision to fruition.