It is a globe. A bubble. A dome rising from the ground just off the Las Vegas Strip.
It is the MSG Sphere, the Madison Square Garden Company's vision of a new Las Vegas arena set on Sands Avenue east of the Strip between Koval Lane and Manhattan Street. Announced last month, the project is an ambitious departure from traditional venues, both in its design and its technology.
The Sphere resembles just that, a rounded dome that measures 360 feet high with an "equator width" of more than 500 feet. Outside, the exterior can function as a screen, broadcasting video or images customized to each event or livestreaming what's going on within the walls.
Inside, the venue has a planned scalable capacity for 18,000 seats, all of which will have clear audio thanks to an adaptive acoustic system and facing a stage backed by an interior bowl with the "largest and highest-resolution media display on Earth."
According to USA Today, the Sphere was inspired by the electronic dance music shows held at Madison Square Garden in New York by artists like deadmau5 and Swedish House Mafia, where the performance is focused more on the production created around musicians.
"What I got from that was it wasn't just about the performance and the lights and the music, it was about being together," Dolan told USA Today.
That togetherness will be on display at the MSG Sphere. In a nod to younger customers who want to document every moment of a show, each seat will have internet connectivity, and a custom spherical camera system inside the venue will capture the action, which will tend heavily toward music and entertainment rather than sports.
Designed by Populous, a global firm that has also worked on the London Olympics, the redesign of Wembley Stadium and T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, the arena is expected to break ground later this year and open in late 2020. The Sphere will be connected to the Venetian and Palazzo resorts via a pedestrian bridge.
It will enter a crowded Las Vegas, where along with older casino arenas and T-Mobile, the new Raiders Stadium is in the works, and in October Clark County Commissioners approved an expansion of a resort project from ex-NBA player Jackie Robinson that includes a 22,000-seat arena with retractable roof that might eventually host an NBA team.
However, the Madison Square Garden Company has its sights set beyond Las Vegas. It's using the city as a test market of sorts for the MSG Sphere concept, with the idea of bringing Spheres large and small to other cities in coming years.