www.businessinsider.com: The highly anticipated Sphere in Las Vegas opened on Friday with a U2 concert and a star-studded attendee list, but it's a daily movie that will be more important for the theater and the city.
The ball-shaped building, estimated to cost $2.3 billion, is believed to be the largest spherical structure in the world at 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide.
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The conversation around The Sphere is particularly interesting to me in several ways. First, most concert venues don’t have events every single day. More often you’ll see them filled on the weekends with only a couple events during the week, if any at all. I think building such a large venue and not expecting some empty days is simply poor business and planning. I’m sure the folks who built and produce at The Sphere were aware of all of the risks associated with building not just a concert venue, but one that can provide such unique experiences. That leads me to my second point, which is that because of the one-of-a-kind experience audiences can get at The Sphere, there are limited ways to create and produce shows that would fully work and take advantage of all The Sphere has to offer, with its IMAX-esque theater. Third, the entertainment industry is always in flux and that is simply the nature of the industry. Finally, the ticket prices do not seem ridiculous to me. When people go to Las Vegas, they usually intend to spend money on experiences apart from casinos. If the shows at The Sphere prove to be some you can’t miss, then they shouldn’t need to worry. But it sounds like the uncertainty of future shows will be a battle.
I want to start by saying that I think the Las Vegas Sphere is a fascinating piece of technology showing the enormous scale humans can create. To someone who hasn't seen it, it is almost impossible to comprehend just how massive it is. While I'm sure the experience of seeing any type of show in it would be incredible, I worry that many big-name musicians will not have concerts in it because of the sheer amount of work that would be needed in order to design media to be displayed on the sphere the entire show. Additionally, the graphics could distract from the artists themselves. I saw many people post on social media showing the sphere and saying how cool the experience was, but nobody (unsurprisingly) talked about U2. I agree with the article that it can't depend on concerts and needs to find a range of different experiences that will attract people. While I think tickets should be as low as they can be, I don't think $50 is a ridiculous amount for a bad seat, especially in a city as expensive as Las Vegas.
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