The Sphere, one year after Dorothy

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I love the Las Vegas Sphere. 

It’s such a bizarre building, with a rollercoaster of a business story. I’ve done two videos about it, so I thought it was time for another update. 

Here's the ride so far:

2023. James Dolan (yes, the Knicks guy) opens the most unusual venue on earth. Construction goes more than a BILLION dollars over budget, to $2.3B. 

When it finally opens, U2 plays the first residency. Everybody posts about it. The videos are insane. 

–

Early 2025. Everyone knows the Sphere, but it’s also a money pit. The venue loses $94 million in a single quarter. 

One big problem: not many bands are U2 - as in, able to fill a massive venue for multiple nights of a residency.

Dolan calls it "the first pancake" (the one that comes out a little burnt).

–

August 2025. They get Google’s AI team to rebuild the original Wizard of Oz for the dome screen, with wind, smells, and foam apples dropping from the ceiling. Suddenly those band-less days have a hit.

By June 2026, this show alone has sold more than 3 million tickets and passed $400 million. 

–

2026. The nights fill up. Metallica announces 8 shows. Demand pushes it to 24. 

Then the Backstreet Boys come back for a second run and keep adding dates into 2027. The Eagles pass 50 shows. Phish sells out. No Doubt sells out.

–

At the end of the day, it all turned around on Wizard of Oz. 

It wasn’t that the building was truly empty before that show. They had nature documentaries and stuff playing. But they weren’t particularly remarkable, and they weren’t making much money.

Three months of Dorothy brought in $54 million more revenue than the same three months of their previous programming. 

It’s a great principle: sometimes what saves you is fixing your worst thing, not tweaking your best thing.

Apparently they’re doing Rocky Horror Picture Show next. 

What’s your most underperforming slot?

Take your most expensive asset: the building, the trucks, the crew. Write down what fills each hour and what each hour brings in.

Then circle the lowest earner that's still eating capacity.

That's your boring nature documentary. 

Find your Wizard of Oz to replace it.

(Airlines and hotels have obsessed over this for decades. Every empty seat or room is money gone forever, so they track what each one earns, flight by flight and night by night.)

Good luck out there.

Michael