James Dolan’s $2.3 Billion Sphere Is Raising Eyebrows—in a Good Way

For the last several years, Las Vegas pleasure seekers might have been puzzled as they gazed westward from the Strip. Looming in the distance was a 366-foot-tall sphere. The dark orb bore a familial resemblance to the Death Star but lacked any signage offering a clue to its purpose. It was obviously an attraction, but what kind?

If the Sphere were actually a space station, its commander would be James Dolan, the irascible scion of the family that controls some of New York’s most famous venues and two of the city’s sports franchises. He’s a figure of dubious celebrity on his home turf, where he’s blamed for the seemingly perpetual mediocrity of the Knicks and derided for fronting what some would consider a high-priced vanity roots-rock band, JD & the Straight Shot. For the better part of a decade, Dolan has been at work on the enormous spherical structure in the Nevada desert in an unlikely bid to establish himself as a man of vision.