Sphere’s Owners Looking At Quarter-Sized Venues To Spur Global Expansion

March 7, 2025 by Dave Haynes

Hat tip to Guy Campos and AV Magazine, which keeps a close eye on the Las Vegas Sphere’s business fortunes and plans …

The company behind the giant LED-clad Sphere attraction in Las Vegas said in a quarterly earnings call with investment analysts this week that it is actively working on a franchise-like model that would see 1/4-sized, 5,000-seat versions go up in cities where the project can clear zoning and light trespass hurdles.

Sphere Entertainment Co. also says plans for what would be the second Sphere venue are moving forward in Abu Dhabi, with the company working closely with partner DCT Abu Dhabi on venue design and pre-construction planning. The Abu Dhabi government is the partner and will fully fund that one.

Sphere CEO Jim Dolan said in the earnings call smaller Sphere venues are intended to be “deployable to more markets.” Given the original cost was an estimated $2.3 billion USD, it’s easy to understand how that would limit the possibilities for duplicates outside of money-is-no-object Saudi Arabia and UAE.

Dolan also suggested the franchise-style expansion model would see content that was first created for Las Vegas then playing in other locations, spreading capital costs across a broader base.

The company will share more details about expansion plans by the end of 2025.

In the last quarter of 2025, Sphere did $86.5 million from its custom films, down $6.4 million from a year earlier. Revenues from concerts were $54.4 million, down just a hair from the same quarter in 2023.

The most interesting thing related to earnings is money made from the outside of the venue – the LED-clad Exosphere. The financials say advertising and suite license fees were $20.3 million for the quarter, up $2.7 million from the prior year quarter, “primarily reflecting an increase in sponsorship revenues and revenues from advertising campaigns on the venue’s Exosphere, as well as higher suite license fee revenues.”

It would be great if the advertising was broken out on its own, but extrapolating that to 12 months, it suggests Exosphere ads are a very significant revenue stream for Sphere, probably a healthy chunk of some $80 million.

Here’s the release on the earnings, for those who can read that stuff without going cross-eyed … My decoder ring melted trying to figure this out:

For the three months ended December 31, 2024, operating loss of $107.9 million improved by $86.0 million as compared to the prior year quarter, primarily reflecting the absence of an impairment charge recorded in the prior year quarter, partially offset by higher selling, general and administrative expenses. Adjusted operating income decreased by $14.9 million to an adjusted operating loss of $0.8 million as compared to the prior year quarter, primarily reflecting higher selling, general and administrative expenses. Excluding the impact of $8.3 million and $1.2 million of executive management transition costs (or $4.6 million and $0.2 million excluding share-based compensation) recorded in the current and prior year quarters, respectively, operating loss would have been $99.6 million and $192.7 million, respectively, and adjusted operating income would have been $3.8 million and $14.3 million, respectively.

So I have no idea if they are making money or running at a loss.

Capital and operating costs are very obviously big hurdles to seeing Sphere’s duplicated elsewhere, but the operators are also very likely challenged in finding jurisdictions that support an LED-clad structure that uses a lot of kilowatt hours for no overly useful purpose, and floods with bright light the windows of anyone working or living in nearby buildings.

People living near the Las Vegas Strip or Times Square in New York were already conditioned to life in a kaleidoscope. People in other cities (except maybe China), not so much).