The Venetian’s massive entertainment venue, the MSG Sphere, announced Monday that it will employ 3,000 Southern Nevadans before it opens in late 2023.
Speaking at the Vegas Chamber Preview 2023 networking event at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Venetian president Lucas Watson of MSG Sphere said job fairs will begin in April to fill hotel and operations Staff, food and beverage professionals, positions such as bartenders, ushers and security personnel.
“We’re going to need all the typical items we need to run an 18,600-seat entertainment venue,” Watson said in an interview after the presentation.
Watson emphasized that Sphere represents a whole new entertainment medium.
“Our design intent is to take viewers to real and imagined places, as if they were there for the first time,” he said in his presentation. “Inside the Sphere, audiences will be wowed by the first 16K LED screen on Earth. It will be far sharper than anything you can experience today. It will be truly incredible. In addition to the screen, audiences will Enjoy the immersive sound of Sphere, which has 164,300 channels (speakers)—that’s eight channels for everyone in the building. If every seat in the house didn’t have headphones, it would be headphone sound.”
Viewers will also be able to feel and smell the environment depicted on screen.
“When I say you can feel it, you probably think it’s a metaphor,” Watson said. “But there are 10,000 haptic seats that make you feel the experience in your bones. Whether it’s a rocket ship launching or a boxer hitting a boxing glove, you really feel like you’re in a spaceship or in a ring.
“We’ll have wind that blows your hair back, scents, and temperatures that will feel like humid canyons. Creators will be able to take audiences on journeys so realistic that fans will start questioning their reality .”
The Sphere is expected to feature daily entertaining demos, with multiple demos on some days. Content is developed by top filmmakers and content providers at their Big Dome studio in Burbank, California, and produced using high-resolution 360-degree cameras.
Watson also said Sphere is expected to generate revenue by placing ads on the building’s exterior screens, and that it has developed prototype ads for national brands to consider. He estimates that millions more will see a demonstration of its appearance, and people will share what they see on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
During his 15-minute presentation, Watson said Sphere will open the doors for Clark County students interested in STEAM topics (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) to tour the facility and learn how to apply what they see to those topics.
While the venue will offer tours and entertaining presentations, guests will be committed to four to six musical residencies, with 10-12 performances per visiting group.
Sphere’s parent company, MSG Entertainment, already has a long list of performers it has approached, but Watson declined to name them.
He hopes Sphere will drive the event industry forward, with the venue serving as a spotlight for new product introductions and special business presentations.
While the site isn’t geared toward sports, Watson said Sphere might host some combat sports.
“The Sphere was designed from the ground up for music and entertainment,” he said. “We’re going to have some big fighting events, whether it’s boxing or WWE. So fighting is an option, but there won’t be a ton of sports in Sphere. It’s more for movies and entertainment.”
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893.follow @RickVelotta on twitter.
