By Katherine Rosman, New York Times | In his 26th-floor office, high above Midtown Manhattan, James L. Dolan sits on a white couch by a large desk and armoire decorated with family photographs, with an electric guitar on a stand in the corner. His eyes are trained on a wall-mounted surveillance screen.
Dolan, 68, oversees a family empire that includes some of New York’s most famous brands, including Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall, the Knicks and the Rangers. At the epicenter of professional sports, marquee concerts, politics and real estate, he is one of the most powerful forces in the city. He is also one of New York’s most vilified public figures, a punching bag and a punchline.
But New York is not where his brain or his video monitor are focused. Dolan — son of Long Island, commander of beloved New York sports teams, and magnet for the type of caustic mockery that only New Yorkers are capable of expressing — is looking 2,500 miles southwest for respect, redemption and reputational rebirth.
Foremost on his mind, and on the live-feed beamed into his New York office, is his new arena in Las Vegas, an audacious project that he believes could revolutionize the live entertainment industry.
Rising behind the Vegas Strip, the arena, called the Sphere, is an enormous orb wrapped — inside and out — with more than 700,000 square feet of programmable video screens. It has the capacity to use sound, vibration and even smells to transport audiences into a virtual reality, no headset required. The Sphere is scheduled to open next week with a series of largely sold-out performances by U2.
The project cost $2.3 billion to build, mostly during the pandemic, with the sheer force of Dolan’s legendary stubbornness propelling it to completion, albeit two years late and $1 billion over budget.
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New York Loves to Hate Him. Can a $2.3 Billion Sphere Redeem Jim Dolan?
