The brand behind the innovative concept is gaining financial traction, now that investors see it as a reality rather than an abstract project.
The grand opening of the Las Vegas Sphere happened this past weekend. A concept as original as a literal giant hollow sphere to hold different forms of entertainment had to live up to the hype. And live up they did, by bringing none other than Rock band U2 to inaugurate the centre. As you’d imagine, the venue did well, as their first-ever event handled the expectations in an elegant fashion.
The Market’s Reaction
Not only are the guys at the forefront of entertainment still steadily rising in popularity: they are rising in value as well. Upon opening on Monday, October 2nd, the first weekday after the shows, the stock market saw a spike in the price of Sphere Entertainment’s asset, SPHR. Take a look at the graph below, courtesy of Yahoo Finance, which shows the price and volume movements of the past five days, as of October 3rd, 12:22 PM ET.
As can be seen, the stock saw a big hike in the early active hours of Monday, having closed on Friday, September 29th with a price of $37.32, and being valued at $41.85 just one hour into the Monday period. The highest price achieved for SPHR came that same Monday, at 12:40 PM, when the stock closed at a price of $43.45. This represents a delta of 16.4%.
Also evident from the graph is the volume of trade, which shows much more action this week than it ever got during the late September days. Despite the volume seeing an increase, the price is currently undergoing a correction phase, and it’s falling from its all-time-high (ATH) price of $43.45, to $40.01 as of 12:22 PM ET. It all seems to point, though, to a final stable price that outperforms that of last week. You can follow the movement of SPHR through this link.
The Sphere’s Debut: U2
“Go big or go home“, is a classical phrase by now. Well, the Sphere guys sure went big, luring legendary rock band U2 to the stage. Around 18,000 concertgoers — among which stood celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Paul McCartney, Jeff Bezos, LeBron James, Jon Hamm, Aaron Paul, and Bryan Cranston — filled the inside of the Sphere, for U2’s residency ‘U2:UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere‘. The show graced the place twice this past weekend, firstly on Friday, September 29th, and then the day after.
According to the New York Post, Sphere owner James Dolan closed a $10M deal with the band for a residency at the Sphere, which consists of 26 shows — two of which have already happened —, the last of which is set to happen on December 16th, 2023.
We’re yet to see future shows, residencies, and visuals Las Vegas Sphere will put on display to maintain the level of hype they’ve been able to hold for the entire year. For now, though, it seems like the newborn venue has no plans of slowing down.
