Peeking behind the financial curtain at the Las Vegas Sphere as U2′s residency draws to a close

After 40 shows, 700,000 tickets generating €75 million in revenue, U2 will end their residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas tonight.

The band were initially supposed to play for 25 nights, then a further 11 were added and then four more to bring it on an end.

U2 have been among the most ambitious and innovative bands in music history when it comes to live touring with the Zoo TV, Lemon and Pop tours over the years, utilising an arsenal of technological advancements to create a memorable concert experience.

In Las Vegas, though, the real star of the show has been the venue itself. When U2 opened the Sphere on September 29th last, it rendered every other music venue in the world out of date. The combination of the world’s largest and clearest LED screen wrapping around the audience and studio-quality sound made it an unworldly experience.

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The $2.3 billion (€2.1 billion) development was first mooted by Irish-American businessman James Dolan, who owns Madison Square Garden in New York. Dolan drew a circle on a page with a stick person inside. From initial design to opening took six years, despite the interruptions of Covid-19.

The band drove a hard bargain for the privilege of being the first to open the venue. The New York Post reported that U2 received $10 million upfront and 90 per cent of the ticket price for each concert

It is not the type of venue where artists can do one night and move on. Dolan needed an established act, preferably a legacy one, supported by fans with deep pockets and the means to travel. As it turned out, U2 wanted to reprise the 30th anniversary of the Zoo TV tour, which in the early 1990s extended the boundaries of what was possible with a live show. It was the perfect act for the perfect venue.

Nevertheless, the band drove a hard bargain for the privilege of being the first to open the venue. The New York Post reported that U2 received $10 million upfront and 90 per cent of the ticket price for each concert. The venue took the rest through merchandising and catering.

The estimates of the money U2′s members will make from each show ranges from $1 million to $1.4 million (€920,000 to €1.3 million).

Has it been worth it? The band themselves look rejuvenated and fans have been impressed.

[ I’ve never experienced anything like it’: U2 fans on the band’s Las Vegas Sphere debut ]

“It was like something out of Blade Runner,” said U2 fan and friend of the band Professor Luke O’Neill, the immunologist who became a household name during the pandemic. He was there the first night along with such luminaries of music as Paul McCartney.

“You feel like you are in a brand new place when you walk in. It’s like nowhere else you have been in before. It’s sound and vision times a million. Your mind is blown by the graphics,” O’Neill said.

U2 fan Sarah Kenny from Galway went two nights with her husband during Superbowl weekend, which was played in Las Vegas. Their standing tickets cost $250 (€230) each. On the second night they had seating tickets, which they purchased on the secondary ticket markets for $200 each, down from a face value price of $400. Kenny says there were many Irish fans on the plane to Las Vegas.

‘Something was missing. I have been trying to figure it out, and the only conclusion I can come to is the building itself. It’s like in the pursuit of perfect visuals and sound, the music-goers were an afterthought’

—  Collette Langan, Irish concertgoer

“It was unbelievable. Your mouth is open to the ground several times,” she said.

Colette Langan, who travelled to Las Vegas with her sister Loretta, agreed about the visuals and the sound quality, but was underwhelmed otherwise by the experience.

[ U2 live in Las Vegas: An unforgettable gig unlike any other ]

“Something was missing. I have been trying to figure it out, and the only conclusion I can come to is the building itself. It’s like in the pursuit of perfect visuals and sound, the music-goers were an afterthought. We had seats in front of the stage but they were really high up,” she said.

“I’m okay with heights but found it quite scary. There is no way you would stand up or attempt to dance, there was a real fear of toppling over and rolling down the hill of thousands of people in front and those at floor level who could dance chose not to.”

The question for the Sphere and for U2 is how they are going to top the experience.

The next act mooted for a residency at the Sphere are The Eagles who are on their final farewell tour, but that might not happen until next November at the earliest.

Fortunately, the Sphere had planned for a long hiatus between major acts. U2 is not the major earning act at the Sphere. Instead, it is Darren Aronofsky’s Postcard from Earth, a 52-minute film especially commissioned for the Sphere which has been the biggest revenue generator. It had earned some $44.5 million in the quarter from September to November last year compared to U2′s €30.5 million.

[ U2 and the Las Vegas Sphere: You can admire the band without loving the spectacle ]

Fans have been wowed by the experience, which includes swimming with fish, and the elephant in the room that looks like it is thundering towards you while your seat vibrates and the noise fills the room.

The Sphere remains a unique experience as plans to recreate an identical venue near the Olympic Village in London have been shelved over the issue of light pollution.

As for U2, there is a new album promised, but only when drummer Larry Mullen recovers from the back surgery, which has kept him out of the Las Vegas residency. Dutch drummer Bram van den Berg covered for him. When the new album will happen is a closely guarded secret.

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