MSG Sphere excavation begins near Las Vegas Strip — VIDEO
Construction equipment has been mobilized and excavation has begun for the 18,000-seat performance venue being developed by The Madison Square Garden Co. on 18 acres of a 63-acre site east of The Venetian and Palazzo.
Six months after a groundbreaking event, crews have assembled to begin work on the MSG Sphere at The Venetian, a globe-shaped building that will be 360 feet tall with a diameter of 500 feet.
The site is off Sands Avenue between Manhattan Street and Koval Lane.
An estimated 3,500 local construction workers are expected to be hired at various points of development, and the venue is expected to provide 4,400 permanent jobs once it’s completed, which is projected to be in 2021.
The building will have a 160,000-square-foot indoor spherical digital display pane, and the exterior will have a 580,000-square-foot programmable surface.
The company has promoted first-of-its-kind sound technology for the building that will include directed “beamformed” sound transmission and will let patrons feel the vibrations of low-register sound from an infrasound haptic floor system.
A 1,100-foot pedestrian bridge will be built from the Sands Expo & Convention Center to the Sphere, and a new stop on the Las Vegas Monorail is planned.
Madison Square Garden unveiled the technology of the Sphere at Radio City Music Hall in New York in February 2018 and took the show on the road to London, Southern California and Las Vegas in a hangar at McCarran International Airport since then. The company has yet to give a cost estimate for the project.
The Review-Journal is owned by the family of Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson. Las Vegas Sands operates The Venetian and Palazzo.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.
