If you scale up the spending by three orders of magnitude and drop $2.3 billion on an immersive spherical entertainment venue, what you end up with is The Sphere Las Vegas, which announced its arrival on Tuesday by lighting up its 580,000-square-foot external LED skin, or "exosphere."

Sphere was designed by Populous, the global architecture firm behind many of the world's top sports arenas. The cost to build was more than the Sphere's glitziest Vegas neighbors, including the Bellagio and Allegiant Stadium.

Described as "living architecture", the MSG Sphere is designed by the architecture studio Populous for the company behind New York's Madison Square Garden (MSG). Once complete, it will host live entertainment and concerts while showcasing a wide range of visual content across its exterior.

The Concept behind Cal Vegas Sphere:
The driving force behind Cal Vegas Sphere was to create a one-of-a-kind immersive experience that combines art, technology, and entertainment. The project aimed to transport visitors into a mesmerizing world where the lines between reality and fantasy blur. It serves as a testament to human imagination, showcasing the incredible possibilities when creativity meets advanced technology.

It squats on the Las Vegas skyline like an enormous black and mysterious spaceship until night falls, when it will glow like the Earth from space.

The MSG Sphere won’t open to the public for almost three more months when U2 christens the entertainment venue with a series of concerts. But anticipation is growing.

Interesting Facts:

At 366 feet tall and 516 feet wide, it’s being billed as the world’s largest spherical structure. Its bowl-shaped theater reportedly contains the world’s highest-resolution wraparound LED screen. And its exterior is fitted with 1.2 million hockey puck-sized LEDs that can be programmed to flash dynamic imagery on a massive scale – again, reportedly the world’s largest. It was fully illuminated for the first time Tuesday night to celebrate the Fourth of July.

The venue also will host exclusive screenings of “Postcard From Earth,” a film by Darren Aronofsky that promises to take full advantage of Sphere’s vast screen by offering viewers an eye-popping tour of the planet.

“Most music venues are sports venues. They’re built for sports – they’re not built for music. In the Apple Music interview, they’re not built for art,” says U2’s Bono.

“This building was built for immersive experiences in cinema and performance … you can’t come here and see an ice hockey game.”

In November, the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix’s street circuit will pass through the Sphere property, and the arena eventually hopes to host boxing, mixed martial arts and other events as well.
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