Global Courant
The brand new venue will host the NBA Summer League and the Irish band U2 will inaugurate it with a concert on September 29.
Although the Summer League, which began on Friday, will allow the NBA’s top promises to be seen for 11 days at the Cox Pavilion and the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, another stadium located in the City of Sin attracted attention in these hours: the MSG Sphere. This spherical coliseum, which has not yet been inaugurated, is being used as a promotional space for these matches thanks to the screen system that covers it.
Since Thursday night, when a welcome message was projected to the franchises, players and fans who would gather in the city of the state of Nevada for the Summer League, the MSG Sphere has been displaying content related to this on its exterior. event thanks to the technological platform that it has and that has astonished even those who are used to the paraphernalia of Las Vegas.
Located on a 17-acre site in Paradise, Nevada, near the Las Vegas Strip and east of the Venetian complex, this building is the largest spherical stadium in the world: 112 meters high, 157 meters wide at its maximum point and 81,000 square meters of surface, divided into nine levels. When it opens its doors, it will have capacity for 18,600 people seated or 20,000 standing.
The projections on its exterior that these days drew special attention were possible thanks to a device of 54,000 square meters of LED panels that allows this kind of exhibitions and that had also been used this week for the celebration of the 4th of July, day of the independence of the United States.
As if this were not enough, the enclosure has an enveloping LED screen with 16K resolution and 15,000 square meters inside, which makes it the largest and highest resolution in the world. It also has 164,000 speakers and 4D elements, such as perfumes and wind.
The MSG Sphere project was announced by the Madison Square Garden company in 2018 and construction began the following year. Initially, it was scheduled to be ready in 2021, but the work had to be interrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic and later suffered delays due to problems in the supply chain necessary for the work.
These situations and the inflationary process also caused a notable increase in costs: initially it was calculated that the construction would require an investment of 1,200 million dollars, but that value grew to 2,300 million, making it the most expensive recreation area Las Vegas (Allegiant Stadium, which the Las Vegas Riders use for their NFL games, cost $1.9 billion).
The inauguration of the MSG Sphere will be on September 29: that day the Irish band U2 will give the first of the 25 concerts of their show “UV Achtung Baby” that is scheduled until December at this venue.
