How Futuristic 'Sphere' Lights Up Las Vegas
If you look up in the middle of Las Vegas, you might see a huge basketball rising up from the city one day. Another day, you might see a giant eyeball.
No, it's not a monster movie.
It's Sphere, a 157-meter-wide, 112-meter-tall venue for concerts, movies and sports events. Built over five years at an estimated cost of $2.3 billion, it's the most expensive entertainment venue ever built in Las Vegas.
Called the largest spherical building in the world, the idea for Sphere came from James Dolan, CEO of Madison Square Garden Entertainment, and owner of the New York Knicks basketball team and New York Rangers ice hockey team.
The outside of Sphere is wrapped in 54,000 square meters of high-resolution LED panels, allowing it to project images all over its surface. Some days it might show ads or movie times, while on others it might show the American flag.
On the inside, it has over 18,000 seats facing a huge, curving, 270-degree screen.
Sphere opened on September 29, 2023, with a concert by Irish band U2. The event was attended by celebrities including Orlando Bloom, Matt Damon and LeBron James.
U2 played a total of 40 concerts in Sphere between September 2023 and March 2024. Playing in front of elaborate video imagery, the band earned an estimated $170 million from sales of over 660,000 tickets.
And while U2 has now gone, visitors can see the Eagles play at Sphere on Fridays and Saturdays until January 2025, with tickets starting at $175.
On other days of the week, Sphere shows a movie about the U2 concerts, as well as a 50-minute documentary called Postcard from Earth. Created by Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky, Postcard from Earth shows images of our planet accompanied by shaking seats and wind blowing at the audience.
Tickets for these movies aren't cheap, however — they start at around $100 and can cost a lot more!
