Sphere Entertainment, the company behind the Las Vegas landmark The Sphere, has announced it has struck a deal for a second Sphere arena in the United States.
The Las Vegas sphere opened in September 2023, at an unprecedented cost of $2.3 billion. Designed as a concert and entertainment venue, The Sphere is the most expensive entertainment venue in Sin City.
The 20,000-capacity arena was christened by a 40-show residency by iconic Irish rock band U2, and has since welcomed stars such as The Eagles, No Doubt, and the Backstreet Boys. More recently, the sphere has been showcasing immersive — and also controversial — 4D movie experiences, namely 1939’s The Wizard of Oz, adapted using generative AI.
The New Sphere Is Headed for Washington D.C.
According to the new announcement from Sphere Entertainment, a deal has been set in place with the State of Maryland to open a new Sphere in the Washington D.C. metro area. To be exact, the new venue will be at the National Harbor, one of the city’s buzziest tourist areas and leisure locations.
D.C. isn’t exactly comparable to the Las Vegas Strip, right? Well, Sphere Entertainment has allegedly accommodated for that. The company noted that the new Sphere will be “smaller-scale” than the existing U.S. Sphere in Vegas. The D.C. venue is set to have 6,000 seats, compared to the 18,600 seats in Sin City, which boasts a capacity of 20,000 in total.
The project will cost an estimated $200 million to build, using a mixture of private and public funding. Although no opening date has been announced yet, the Las Vegas Sphere was initially announced in 2018, and opened in 2023.
The National Harbor Sphere is actually the third proposed version of the venue worldwide, as another Sphere is currently under construction in Abu Dhabi.
