Dubai Maybe Getting Its Own Version Of An Immersive Sphere, But It’s A Big Maybe

September 30, 2024 by Dave Haynes

The CEO and President of MGM Resorts has floated the idea of a big immersive sphere attraction going up in Dubai, but there are several differences to the Sphere switched on last year in Las Vegas.

First, it would have seating for 300 people, while Sphere in Las Vegas can hold 18,000-plus. Second, it would be part of a resort complex and kind of nested into the venue, instead of standing alone. And third, the biggie, the resort complex project has been talked up since 2017 but has not yet started construction. It would have an MGM, Bellagio, and an Aria, but at the moment, casinos are not allowed in the UAE.

The resort is touted to be part of a development called The Islands, the new name for a man-made archipelago off the Dubai shoreline that dredged up sand to create a set of islands that kinda sorta barely resemble a map of the globe. The mega-project was largely mothballed for years, but there are efforts now to build it out and find companies willing to invest.

That’s my way of suggesting this is much more a maybe than a when.

Bill Hornbuckle told a NYC travel industry conference crowd recently that his company has applied for a casino license in the UAE, but in neighboring Abu Dhabi.

The Dubai sphere would be similar in scale to the one in Vegas – with just two meters less height. But the show would be inside only and not, it appears, on the outer ball. It also has no ties to the Las Vegas project, which is owned and run by an entity related to Madison Square Gardens.

Hornbuckle told people at the Skift Global Forum: “[In Dubai] there will be three properties sitting on a large podium and in the middle of it is a sphere. Not as big as the sphere in Las Vegas by any stretch but equally compelling. It has 300 seats with a mini showroom and the visual things you’d obviously do inside a sphere.”

“It’ll have a show line that walks through the history of Dubai. The first time I went, I thought [Dubai] was Las Vegas on steroids,” said Hornbuckle. “In 1985 it was desert and literally 35 years later it’s this ‘megatropolis’ with three million people. We’re going to tell that story.”