The highly anticipated Las Vegas Sphere finally opened on Friday and the new 18,600-seat auditorium takes cutting-edge LED entertainment to a whole new level.
It kicked off on September 29, with the first show of U2’s 25-day U2:UV Achtung Baby Live residency, and will debut Darren Aronofsky’s multi-sensory film Postcard From Earth on October 6.
But drawing almost as much attention as the onstage performances are the reportedly sky-high advertising costs for brands looking to take advantage of the record-breaking building’s 1.2 million LED lights on its 50,000-square-foot immersive screen.
The final price tag for the building was an estimated $2.3 billion. MSG clearly has some costs to recoup.
X user (formerly known as Twitter). PitchDeckGuy claimed this week that the Sphere is asking $450,000 for just one day of advertising. His figures came from what appeared to be a leak from the company’s sales pitch, which included advertising costs.
The advertising costs to take advantage of the record-breaking building’s 1.2 million lights are breathtaking
The Sphere is located east of The Venetian Resort on the Las Vegas Strip
Several users on
And if you want to extend your coverage to a week, he claims the cost goes up to $650,000.
Another
Now officially called The Sphere at the Venetian Resort, the project was announced in 2018, in partnership with Madison Square Garden, and construction began in February 2019. However, in 2020, work was suspended several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. , and finally resumed in August of that year.
It is unclear how much U2 spent to advertise their 25-day residency.
Thousands of fans and celebrities attended the opening night, including Paul McCartney, Josh Duhamel and Oprah Winfrey.
According to PitchDeckGuy’s post, U2’s residency is a ‘key in-market event’ – meaning it is already extremely popular and attracting a huge amount of consumer interest. Other similar events include the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas in 2023.
U2 confirmed the first dates for the shows in May 2023 – their first live performances since 2019.
More than one million fans participated in the Verified Ticket presale after its promotion and announcement, causing Ticketmaster to break the link.
The supply-and-demand tactic didn’t work in favor of fans who missed the presale, as ticket prices rose from $140 to a whopping $1,250.
Prices have fallen significantly since then, but as of October ticket prices range from $322-$545 for the other performances.
U2 played opening night at the Sphere on September 29 to kick off the first night of their 25-day residency. Thousands of people were present
Social media users are divided: is this a good deal or are the numbers wrong?
Social media users couldn’t help but be baffled by the alleged ad prices, but others wondered if they should be even higher.
‘Too high or low?’ someone asked, prompting a series of responses.
“Given the number of views the orb has gotten, this seems like a pretty good deal,” one person said
Taking construction costs into account, another asked: ‘How would they recoup the investment? Even if they are booked daily, it will take almost 4000+ days.”
One user replied: ‘They are booked daily. And 4000 days is like what, 13 years? That’s about the break-even point for solar panels.’
One calculator calculated: “$2.3 billion $450,000 365 = 14 years. So it will take 14 years for them to pay back the $2.3 billion?…I’m obviously oversimplifying.”
And someone else joked: ‘Do you get a discount if dead pixels appear in ads?’
Daily Mail has contacted the Sphere for comment.