The Sphere — that luminous, ginormous orb of entertainment ostensibly suited only for Las Vegas — might soon send a smaller sibling rolling into Maryland.

The music-and-more venue’s parent company teased expansion last year and recently revealed that National Harbor is its pick for a second U.S. location. A 6,000-person Sphere (about one-third the size of the original) could open in Prince George’s County within the next few years.

That would likely be a boost, though maybe not as large as officials are pitching, for an area that has recently lost other economic drivers.

Replicating Vegas

What happens in Vegas doesn’t have to stay there.

James Dolan, the owner of the New York Knicks who runs Sphere Entertainment, said repeatedly in 2025 that he wanted to expand his network of Spheres. A second, full-size venue is planned in Abu Dhabi, and the National Harbor orb might merely be the first of several small ones.

Each Sphere would host some the same shows, likely saving the company on production costs.

Content created by Sphere Studios will be “playable” in all Spheres, Dolan said on an earnings call last year. The Vegas venue is currently playing an immersive version of “The Wizard of Oz,” and Dolan pointed to that show as transferrable to other venues.

It’s unclear if live Las Vegas acts, which have included U2, the Eagles and the Backstreet Boys, would also play at National Harbor.

Like the big Sphere, the business model at smaller Spheres would aim to keep the venue “busy” 365 days a year, Dolan said.

“All the content that’s created for Sphere in Vegas and eventually Abu Dhabi will also play in any of these small Spheres,” he said.

Footing the bill

The National Harbor Sphere is expected to cost more than $1 billion, which Sphere Entertainment would mostly pay. But the project also will receive public money.

Prince George’s County has pledged a chunk of public financing. It will provide $170 million total, including $130 million in tax increment financing — a deal in which the county takes out bonds that are repaid through future property taxes — and $40 million for construction of a parking garage, WTOP reported.

The state will pitch in, too. In a joint application from the state, the county and Peterson Cos., the developer that owns National Harbor, Maryland, committed $13.5 million, a spokesperson for Gov. Wes Moore said.

The Peterson Companies offered a discounted ground lease, valued at $15 million, according to The Washington Post.

Using public money for privately operated developments, such as sports stadiums, is common in the U.S., but is often criticized by economic experts.

The roughly $185 million in public backing is typical for such an endeavor, said Nicholas Irwin, a University of Nevada-Las Vegas Lee Business School professor.

Kislaya Prasad, a professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, said it seemed like a large subsidy, specifically “for essentially affluent customers” who would be able to afford tickets to the venue.

Sphere Entertainment declined to say when the project is expected to break ground or open to the public. However, Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy has said it could open as soon as 2030, and Dolan, in an earnings call last year, said his “hope” is that a smaller Sphere could be constructed a little more than two years after breaking ground.

The Vegas Sphere was announced in 2018 and projected to be completed in 2021, but actually opened in 2023. Initially pegged at $1.2 to $1.7 billion, it ultimately cost roughly $2.3 billion.

An economic boost?

The Washington Commanders will relocate from Landover to Washington in 2030, and Six Flags America in Bowie recently closed its doors. (A Six Flags spokesperson said Tuesday there is no update regarding plans to sell that land.)

The Sphere will more than make up for those closures, Braveboy has said, noting that the county would receive triple the revenues from the Commanders and Six Flags combined.

She and Moore have each said the Sphere will generate $1 billion in economic impact — an ambitious target, economists say.

Irwin, the Las Vegas-based professor who graduated from American University in Washington, has seen the buzz created by the Sphere firsthand. He took his children to see “The Wizard of Oz,” even paying $10 for a couple of foam apples that were part of the show.

“You sort of become this new centerpiece in town,” he said of the venue.

But, like many experts, he said he is skeptical of economic impact figures. They often include a medley of optimistic assumptions that produce “an incredibly rosy outlook,” he said.

Prasad concurred. “I thought that number looked high,” he said of the economic estimate.

As a venue, the Sphere has regularly lost money. It operated at an $84 million loss last quarter, but its adjusted operating income — which removes nonrecurring costs, for example — was in the black, which shows promise.

During Sphere Entertainment’s most recent earnings call, Dolan, who received $27 million in compensation last year, pointed to the company’s use of generative AI and the international patents it has secured.

Future Spheres will generate “attractive” returns on investment, he said.

A trip to Vegas

Moore attended a retail conference in Las Vegas last May. During that trip, he participated in several “business attraction meetings.”

“Among them was a tour of Sphere in Las Vegas,“ spokesperson Ammar Moussa said in an email, “during which he made the pitch for a second Sphere location to be developed in Maryland.”