One year of Sphere

Summary

Today, Explained: One Year of Sphere – A Comprehensive Summary

Released on December 20, 2024, by Vox as part of the Vox Media Podcast Network, "Today, Explained" dives deep into the inaugural year of the Sphere in Las Vegas. Hosted by Sean Rameswaram and Noel King, this episode critically examines whether the Sphere truly represents the future of entertainment or if it’s another ambitious Las Vegas venture struggling to find its footing.

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1. Introduction to the Sphere

Sean Rameswaram opens the episode by introducing the Sphere, emphasizing its branding nuances and setting the stage for an in-depth exploration of its first year. He states:

“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.”
[00:01]

The Sphere boasts cutting-edge technology and immersive experiences, positioning itself as a revolutionary venue for concerts and events.

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2. Attendee Experiences and Technological Marvel

Listeners are given firsthand accounts from various attendees, highlighting the Sphere's unique architectural and technological features.

Scott Wright describes the exterior:

“It looks like a spaceship landed in the middle of Vegas. Like, it's just wild looking.”
[02:47]

Scott Zellner shares his journey inside:

“The first part of the experience is making your way from the Venetian along this long corridor skyway... it's sort of garish, sort of ugly, endless.”
[03:23]

Katie Baker recounts the initial energy:

“There was extreme nervous energy among everyone. Like just no one knew what to expect.”
[04:02]

Once inside, the Sphere mesmerizes visitors with its visuals and interactive elements. Jen Chaney highlights the immersive show:

“When the show started, the inner workings of the sphere looked like it was starting to open... and then winds up delivering you into space.”
[06:29]

The venue's ability to blend physical space with digital projections creates an unparalleled sensory experience.

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3. Financial Challenges and Sustainability Concerns

Despite the technological successes, the Sphere faces significant financial hurdles. Josh Kosman from the New York Post delves into the economic aspects:

“He thought it would cost a billion dollars to build. It ended up costing 2.3 billion. It was a big cost overrun.”
[17:40]

The primary issue lies in profitability. While performers like U2 invest heavily in technologically advanced sets, the venue struggles to recoup these costs from concert revenues alone. Kosman explains:

“Artists will make anywhere from 80 to 100% of concert revenues... here, U2 made roughly 90% of ticket sales. That's not leaving a lot left over.”
[19:00]

The financial strain is further exacerbated by the high production costs of exclusive content, such as Darren Aronofsky's documentary, which received poor reviews:

“The film itself is indescribably bad. I feel entitled to compensation at this point.”
[20:30]

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4. Programming and Booking Dilemmas

A critical factor in the Sphere's sustainability is its ability to attract high-profile, younger artists. Kosman points out the strategic missteps:

“They have not figured out how to make money... they need to get some other kinds of flavors in there.”
[13:00]

The Sphere predominantly books legacy acts like U2, Dead & Company, Phish, and the Eagles. This focus on older bands limits appeal to younger demographics, essential for sustained profitability. Attempts to attract top-tier contemporary artists, such as Beyoncé, have faltered due to stringent logistical demands conflicting with the venue's revenue goals:

“Beyoncé wanted at least a few weeks of rehearsal time. But Dolan has three to four movies showing a day. So he did not give her the couple weeks of rehearsal time she wanted.”
[23:29]

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5. Future Prospects and Alternative Revenue Streams

To offset financial losses, the Sphere explores additional revenue streams beyond concerts. Plans include:

• Satellite Spheres: Expansion to international locations like Abu Dhabi, although plans for London have been shelved due to regulatory hurdles.

“London Mayor Sadiq Khan has rejected plans to build one in Stratford, saying it'll cause too much light pollution.”
[21:05]

• Exclusive Content: Producing high-budget films tailored to the Sphere's unique capabilities. However, the high production costs make profitability a challenge.

• Corporate Events: Hosting conferences and business gatherings during daytime slots, although Sean humorously notes:

“Oh, gosh, that sounds so boring.”
[25:17]

Josh Kosman underscores the pressing need for a sustainable business model:

“The Sphere was supposed to be the future of entertainment... but it's really iconic.”
[28:26]

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6. Conclusion: A Mixed Bag of Innovation and Uncertainty

The episode concludes with a nuanced perspective on the Sphere's impact and future. While the venue is undeniably a marvel of modern technology, its financial and strategic challenges cast doubt on its longevity as a standalone entertainment hub.

Nick Pomgarten offers a counterpoint, expressing confidence in the Sphere’s current offerings:

“I think it's now. I think it's the best. I can't imagine that there's a venue right now that delivers a better live music experience than Sphere.”
[12:26]

However, Scott Wright voices broader concerns about the future of entertainment:

“I fear... we'll just be... making love to Taylor Swift and the Oculus Rift... it’ll be like the Matrix.”
[11:10]

Ultimately, "Today, Explained" presents the Sphere as a pioneering but precarious venture in the evolving landscape of entertainment, leaving listeners to ponder its role in the future of live experiences.

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Notable Contributors:

• Sean Rameswaram & Noel King: Hosts of "Today, Explained"
• Josh Kosman: Business reporter at the New York Post
• Scott Wright, Scott Zellner, Katie Baker, Jen Chaney, Nick Pomgarten: Contributors sharing their experiences and insights

Credits: Produced by Amanda Llewellyn, with contributions from Annie Phillips, Cameron Laws, and others.

Transcript

[Sean Rameswaram]

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 Phish to Dead and 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.

[Ad Read Host]

This message is a paid partnership with Apple Pay. When you've got a gift list to finish, the last thing you want to do is take out your wallet a million times. Instead, pay the Apple way. With Apple Pay, you can pay with the phone you're already holding. Just double click, smile at face id, tap, and you're done. The people in line behind you will thank you. Apple Pay is a service provided by Apple Payment Services llc, a subsidiary of Apple Inc. Any card used in Apple Pay is offered by the card issuer.

[Liam]

Hey, it's Liam from Decoder with Neelai Patel. We spent a lot of time talking about some of the most important people in tech and business, about what they're putting resources to and why they think it's so critical for the future. That's why we're doing this special series, diving into some of the most unique ways companies are spending money today. For instance, what does it mean to start buying and using AI at work? How much is that costing companies? What products are they buying, and most importantly, what what are they doing with it? And of course, podcasts. Yes, the thing you're listening to right now, well, it's increasingly being produced directly by companies like venture capital firms, investment funds, and a new crop of creators who one day want to be investors themselves. And what is actually going on with these acquisitions this year, especially in the AI space? Why are so many big players in tech deciding not to acquire and instead license tech and hire away co founders? The answer, it turns out, is a lot more complicated than it seems. You'll hear all that and more this month on Decoder with Nilai Patel, presented by Stripe. You can listen to Decoder wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sean Rameswaram]

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.

[Scott Wright]

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 gonna feel like a heightened version of that. But it looks like a spaceship landed in the middle of Vegas. Like, it's just wild looking. And they do so many fun and creative things that they project on the outside of the Sphere. I mean, sometimes they do commercials and advertising, which I get. But I think the first time I saw it was when they had a cute kind of cartoon face that would change its expressions.

[Scott Zellner]

The first part of the experience is making your way from the Venetian along this long corridor 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, 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. This is another giant convention hall. You know, it's just, it's. The scale of it is bizarre. And you're in this river of other people.

[Katie Baker]

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.

[Scott Zellner]

Band, but it spills you back outside. So suddenly you go from being in the air conditioned Saddam Hussein palace out onto this 110 degree hard pan asphalt.

[Katie Baker]

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.

[Scott Zellner]

My sort of engineer boy brain was sort of going, going into overdrive, like, ah, how does that work? That's amazing. Look at that.

[Nick Pomgarten]

Look at that.

[Ad Read Host]

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.

[Scott Wright]

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 that's like a special U2 mix that they had made that was kind of playing in the. In the lobby area.

[Nick Pomgarten]

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.

[Katie Baker]

They're humanoid.

[Sean Rameswaram]

They look a little bit like C3PO. Maybe you could try to start a conversation with one, and it would kind of answer based on whatever information was pulling. It would. It could. It could get your name, which was kind of eerie.

[Josh Kosman]

Hello, Grace.

Are you graceful?

[Katie Baker]

And, you know, we've all heard the surveillance stories of a lot of the. The venues, especially the. The Jim Dolan ones. And, you know, there was certainly that feel to it, too. Like the. The staff was extremely attentive in. In a way that I've never really felt like at any big event like that. You also just got the sense that, like, you are being watched everywhere you go.

[Scott Zellner]

Then you go inside. It's also beautiful to behold inside because it's, you know, the sphere at rest prior to the show, it has. It had this sort of. It projected onto the screen, an illusion of the armature of the building.

[Jen Chaney]

And when the show started, the inner workings of the sphere looked like it was starting to open. What looked like the sphere opening stopped at the lightning bolt, which is a symbol, a Grateful Dead symbol.

[Scott Zellner]

But what really happens is, I think it's the second song, if I remember correctly, again, that. Where. Where the. Suddenly they. It cracks open. You know, the armature disappears, and, you know, you're outside their old house, the old Victorian, and then the camera or the. Or the perspective slowly pulls away from the house and goes into the air, you know, like a balloon or a helicopter. And you slowly pull away from the city of San Francisco, above the peninsula, over the bay, you can see, you know, the fault lines and the hills, and you can identify if you've ever lived there, as I have. You identify where you lived, where you went, you know, which parks you went to, where your friends live, where your friends lived, and then, you know, and then winds up delivering you into space.

[Jen Chaney]

And then the first thing that hit me after that was the International Space Station came flying by, and it made a huge noise, and it really startled me. And I said, wow, this is really. This is just amazing. This whole venue is just amazing.

[Scott Zellner]

Probably half a Dozen times. I felt. I don't think the phones worked in there. I can't remember. But I felt like I wanted to tell everybody. I know you have to come check this out.

[Katie Baker]

I mean, I would say the band was like, you know, 5 to 10% of my visual field. That's probably even high. Like 5%, you know, and the rest is the screen.

[Nick Pomgarten]

So Fish's visuals were a little more out there, if you will. They were pretty wild.

[Katie Baker]

One was like a puppy, except it was giant. It was like King Kong sized puppy just licking the screen of the sphere. So like just imagine like a tongue dragging. And it was like super, like gross and weird, but also really cool. Like, I felt like I was trapped inside a marble and a dog was. Was licking me and. But just I was like, what crazy mind came up with this?

[Nick Pomgarten]

And then a third type of visual. And I noticed this more with the Dead than with Fish. There are more traditional visuals where it was just like the band. So it was just either just a static shot of the whole band on the stage and playing or maybe close ups of a couple of musicians. So those were fun and they were nice, but also I've seen. I know what those guys look like. So, you know, it was fun and nice to have. But I really enjoyed the scenery and the new stuff more.

[Scott Wright]

You know, you're not in the real world, but every other thing that's happening to your senses is telling you that you're wrong and that you actually are. There's a moment in U2's set where they do. Where the streets have no name and they have like a sunrise and it kind of continues to rise and eventually set by the time the song is done. And I knew I wasn't out in the desert under a, you know, blazing sun, but my brain didn't really comprehend that, like, it felt like you were. That's where you were.

[Ad Read Host]

So I would definitely caution anyone that's prone to motion sickness to maybe take some Dramamine or something beforehand. I'm personally prone to it, so I. I came prepared, fortunately. But I definitely felt the impact of it.

[Katie Baker]

One thing that was fun, you know, as I'm becoming an older lady, I like to sit down at concerts a lot. And it's a great place to sit at a concert because your actual chair has like haptic feedback. You know, it's like a gamer chair. It was really cool to hear some of the songs and like really feel the beat and to also just like really be getting good sound. A lot of times you go to concerts and just by virtue of where you're sitting, there's some weird echo or something's tinny or whatever it is.

[Nick Pomgarten]

At Fish, we'd be up there, they'd be rocking out, jamming, we're all dancing, having fun. And then all of a sudden you'd hear like a, a, a tom, tom drum that sounded like it was straight above you, or a couple of keys from the piano that sound like it was coming from a corner. And everyone would kind of look up and look over there while that, that sound was happening for five seconds, then would go away. We were all kind of looking at each other and say, hey, did we just hear keys coming from straight above us? Did you all hear that too?

[Jen Chaney]

One thing about the Sphere venue is that it's a lot more controlled than a normal dead end 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.

[Katie Baker]

Very different than like a Madison Square Garden Fish show where, you know, you come home like smelling like an ashtray or. Yeah, or there was sort of a classy feel to it. You know, everyone was kind of on their best behavior.

[Scott Zellner]

I think this idea of like the, 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 can, 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, it'll be like the Matrix. We'll just be like floating in some sort 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, you know, I'd be happy if the Sphere was as dystopic as it got, you know, but I fear that's not the case.

[Nick Pomgarten]

I don't think it's the future. I think it's now. I think it's the best. I haven't been to every venue in the world, but I can't Imagine that there's a venue right now that delivers a better live music experience than Sphere.

[Jen Chaney]

And if this even progresses and gets better and better and better, I don't know how it could get any more intense.

[Katie Baker]

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.

[Scott Wright]

My concern about the Sphere is just the way that they're booking it. So far, there have been four bands. U2 dead and company phish, and then the Eagles. And I'm like, can you guys book anyone that didn't exist until after 1990? Like, they just haven't done anybody a little bit younger. And I don't know if that's a calculated decision because they feel like older people are maybe more willing to spend disposable income on this experience and a whole trip to Vegas, but I really think they need to get some other kinds of flavors in there.

[Sean Rameswaram]

That was Alan Rosenthal, Scott Zellner, Scott Wright, and Commander David Llewellyn. And also New York Magazine's Jen Chaney, the Ringer's Katie Baker and the New Yorker's Nick Pomgarten, who have all written great dispatches from the Sphere. Go read them if you're thinking of going yourself. The Sphere was supposed to be the future of entertainment. Why they keep booking your dad's favorite bands when we're back on Today Explained.

[Josh Kosman]

Support for Today Explained comes from Ramp. If you're a finance manager, you're probably used to having to toggle between multiple disjointed tools just to keep track of everything. And sometimes that means there's limited visibility. Business spend. I don't know what any of that means, but RAMP might be able to help. RAMP is a corporate card and spend management software designed to help you save time and put money back in your back pocket. RAMP's accounting software automatically collects receipts, categorizes your expenses in real time. You can say goodbye to manual expense reports. You will never have to chase down a receipt again. You can customize spending limits and restrictions so your employees are empowered to purchase what your business needs. And you can have peace of mind. And now you can get $250. When you join RAMP, you go to ramp.comexplained ramp.comexplained R A M p.comexplained cards are issued by Sutton Bank, a member of the fdic, and terms and conditions do apply.

[Liam]

Hey, it's Liam from Decoder with Neili Patel. We spent a lot of time talking about some of the most important people in tech and business, about what they're putting resources to and why they think it's so critical for the that's why we're doing this special series, diving into some of the most unique ways companies are spending money today. For instance, what does it mean to start buying and using AI at work? How much is that costing companies? What products are they buying, and most importantly, what are they doing with it? And of course, podcasts. Yes, the thing you're listening to right now, well, it's increasingly being produced directly by companies like venture capital firms, investment funds, and a new crop of creators who one day want to be investors themselves. And what is actually going on with these acquisitions year, especially in the AI space? Why are so many big players in tech deciding not to acquire and instead license tech and hire away co founders? The answer, it turns out, is a lot more complicated than it seems. You'll hear all that and more this month on Decoder with Nilai Patel, presented by Stripe. You can listen to Decoder wherever you get your podcasts.

[Ad Read Host]

This message is a Paid Partnership with Apple Pay. When you've got a gift list to finish, the last thing you want to do is take out your wallet a million times. Instead, pay the Apple way. With Apple Pay, you can pay with the phone you're already holding. Just double click, smile at Face ID tap and you're done. The people in line behind you will thank you. Apple Pay is a service provided by Apple Payment Services llc, a subsidiary of Apple Inc. Any card used in Apple Pay is offered by the card issuer.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Josh Kosman's beat is business at the New York Post, which somehow makes him one of the foremost authorities on the sphere in Las Vegas.

[Josh Kosman]

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.

[Sean Rameswaram]

We asked Josh to tell us how the Sphere came to be.

[Josh Kosman]

This has been Jimmy Dolan's dream for several years, perhaps five to 10 years. He is very into music. He plays in a band.

[Sean Rameswaram]

This next song is the title song.

[Scott Zellner]

Of our record and it is called.

[Josh Kosman]

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.

[Sean Rameswaram]

I am now going to make a ballyhoo for you.

[Josh Kosman]

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 from a technological perspective. It largely works. People are wowed by it. Yet he has not figured out how to make money. In fact, he's losing quite a bit of money on the sphere. The problem is it's very hard to make money off concerts.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Taylor Swift just made 2 billion.

[Josh Kosman]

Well, Taylor's the performer. It's not hard for a performer to make money, it's hard for the arena to make money. 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, you 2 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.

[Sean Rameswaram]

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 cause 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.

[Josh Kosman]

It is simply not worth the money.

[Sean Rameswaram]

It's 2024. I'll need more than Mountain Visual to be impressed.

[Josh Kosman]

The film itself is indescribably bad. I feel entitled to compensation at this point.

[Sean Rameswaram]

It did not scream this is the future of the Spheres business model.

[Josh Kosman]

No. And, and the problem is they. 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.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Wow.

[Josh Kosman]

So it is the original wizard of Oz. It's not a new ver. It's the original, and they're shortening it to 80 minutes, but it costs $80 million. So you have to sell a lot of tickets to make up the $80 million. Now, the plan was they were going to build this first sphere in Las Vegas and then have satellite spheres in places like London that didn't work.

[Katie Baker]

Plans for a sphere across the pond have dried up.

[Josh Kosman]

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has rejected plans to build one in Stratford, saying it'll cause too much light pollution.

So they've just sold their first satellite sphere in Abu Dhabi. Because the idea is you could take one of these movies that you've spent 50 to $100 million producing and you have it in your sphere, but now you can sell it in another sphere, and then you can start making money.

[Sean Rameswaram]

We would love to build in other places.

[Scott Zellner]

And that is our plan is to.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Build other sports spheres. The love to build one in New York.

[Josh Kosman]

But the whole concept is based on multiple spheres. And the issue has been everyone can look at this and say, hmm, cost you 2.3 billion to make, and you're not making money in Las Vegas. Why would I do that? So Abu Dhabi has stepped forward, but they have been it.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Getting back to the concerts, for a second here, it feels like it's the concerts that are really going to excite people.

[Josh Kosman]

That's true.

[Sean Rameswaram]

People travel to Las Vegas to see Adele, to see Katy Perry, to see Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak. They don't travel to Las Vegas to watch a depressing nature documentary. Sorry to keep harping on Darren Aronofsky's poor movie.

[Josh Kosman]

He's an artist, Sean.

[Sean Rameswaram]

He's an artist. I keep forgetting that for a while there, the sphere was in talks to host Beyonce. This is the kind of big ticket item that would bring people to Vegas for, who knows, a year, two years, over and over again to see Queen Bee. And then it fell apart. And instead you've got these, like, boomer acts over and over. No, no disrespect. Love some Eagles songs. Is it not working out for Jimmy Dolan to attract younger artists?

[Josh Kosman]

Well, it's an issue. So it depends on who you speak to, why this is happening. Beyonce was clearly in talks. We reported at the New York Post that Beyonce wanted at least a few weeks of rehearsal time. But she's Queen Bee. She wants those Few weeks and she's going to want them when she wants them. Well, Dolan has three to four movies showing a day. He wants that money. So he did not give her the couple weeks of rehearsal time she wanted because that would have meant lost revenue for Jimmy Dolan. There are people you speak to around this who are concerned about that. You want the Sphere to be hip, to attract a younger audience, and it hasn't really happened. One of the challenges is it is a roughly 18,000 seat arena. So you need an artist that will at least come close to packing that arena. That does limit you. There are plenty of interesting artists that can pack a 10,000 seat arena. And not only does it need an act that can pack an 18,000 seat arena, because you have to create a special performance for this space and that takes money and time and effort. You need an artist who's willing to come there for two or three months at least, or longer.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Is there a third option here that we haven't discussed? Is there something other than Beyonce or let's say some super successful custom movie that they run on the nights they don't have shows that could keep this place not only, you know, around, but thriving?

[Josh Kosman]

Well, they were hoping to have conferences there during the day which would raise some money.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Oh, gosh, that sounds so boring. I'm sorry.

[Josh Kosman]

Well, you and I might find it boring, but I'm sure it's. I'm sure you could put on quite a presentation.

[Sean Rameswaram]

We built, we built this legendary venue that you could see from space. Anyway, here's, here's IBM.

[Josh Kosman]

So that is one way to generate money. They were hoping certainly for a sponsor. They don't have a sponsor. So they were hoping by this point you would have federal expresses the Sphere or whoever it would be. They're looking for a price that is similar to a top sports arena in the country. They haven't found it. What they have been able to sell is ads on the exosphere. The outside of the sphere. The financial performance of the sphere they lost. In the quarter ending September 30th, they lost $117 million. That can only happen for so long.

[Sean Rameswaram]

The Sphere was promised to us as the future of entertainment. And I know we've been laughing a little bit here, but, you know, that sounds pretty cool. And when I've seen the thing in person, which I have a few times, it looks pretty cool. And when I see people experiencing it, they seem to be having a great time. I have a friend who goes to a lot of shows and he went and he said, it was the greatest thing he's ever seen. Fish at the Sphere. But does this feel like the future of entertainment, or does this feel like IMAX ultimately, which is like a thing people do sometimes when they feel like it, but it hasn't really become the standard, even though it's great.

[Josh Kosman]

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 Fish concert was the most amazing concert he said he's ever seen, and it's Fish. I shouldn't say that. So it's kind of this dilemma that I think Dolan is facing right now of I have this amazing arena, I have this amazing facility, 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 rate 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 isn't. 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.

[Sean Rameswaram]

Yeah, I love a mixed bag.

[Josh Kosman]

Yeah, this is an interesting mixed bag. And how Dolan pivots will be a really interesting question.

[Sean Rameswaram]

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 Al Saadi, Fact Checked by Laura Bullard and mixed by Andrea Christensdotter and Patrick Boyd. And this was Today Explained.

[Liam]

Hey, it's Liam from Decoder with Neelai Patel. We spend a lot of time talking about some of the most important people in tech and business, about what they're putting resources to and why they think it's so critical for the future that's why we're doing this special series, diving into some of the most unique ways companies are spending money today. For instance, what does it mean to start buying and using AI at work? How much is that costing companies? What products are they buying, and most importantly, what are they doing with it? And of course, podcasts. Yes, the thing you're listening to right now, well, it's increasingly being produced directly by companies like venture capital firms, investment funds, and a new crop of creators who one day want to be investors themselves. And what is actually going on with these acquisitions this year, especially in the AI space? Why are so many big players in tech deciding not to acquire and instead license tech and hire away co founders? The answer, it turns out, is a lot more complicated than it seems. You'll hear all that and more this month on Decoder with Neelai Patel, presented by Stripe. You can listen to Decoder wherever you get your podcasts.

[Josh Kosman]

Support for the show comes from AT and T. What does it feel like to get the new iPhone 16 Pro with at and T Next Up Anytime? It's like when you first light up the grill and think of all the mouth watering possibilities. Learn how to get the new iPhone 16 Pro with Apple Intelligence on AT and T and the latest iPhone every year with AT and T Next Up Anytime AT and T Connecting changes everything. Apple intelligence coming fall 2024 with Siri and device language set to US English. Some features and languages will be coming over the next year. $0 offer may not be available on future iPhones Next Up Anytime feature may be discontinued at any time, subject to change Additional fees. Terms and restrictions apply. See att.com iPhone for details.