Megaproject alert: Dubai Sphere brings Las Vegas glam to the Gulf

The entertainment venue will be located on The Island. 

The UAE loves a megaproject. The country is already home to the world’s tallest buildings and artificial islands. Now, the state-of-the-art entertainment venue, MSG Sphere, could be coming to the UAE. The concept was first created in Las Vegas, and it is now heading to Dubai, courtesy of Dubai Sphere.

According to Skift Global Forum, Dubai Sphere will be located on The Island, which is a Las Vegas-inspired island. The site will be home to Aria, Bellagio and MGM Grand, and Dubai Sphere will sit at the centre of the hotels. 

MGM Resorts’ CEO and President, Bill Hornbuckle, explained at the forum: “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”. 

The original MSG Sphere is located in Las Vegas, United States, and it is an LED wrapped hall, which hosts live entertainment. The venue opened in September 2023, and hosted a 40-show residency from U2. Plus, director Darren Aronofsky’s documentary Earth opened at the venue.

Las Vegas Sphere is 112 metres tall and can seat 18,600 people. Dubai Sphere will be 110 metres tall and seat 300 people. A similar megaproject was proposed to be situated in Stratford, London. The structure would have been able to hold 21,500 people, and it would have been 100 metres tall and 120 metres wide. The plans were rejected by Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, due to light pollution. 

The completion date for Dubai Sphere has not yet been confirmed.

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