Seven years after the initial announcement of MGM Resorts’ Dubai project, the company has now unveiled the plans for the so-called Dubai Sphere, much reminiscent of the Sphere in Las Vegas. MGM Resorts first announced a project in Dubai back in 2017 but not much has happened since. The $2 billion venture was approved by the ruler of the emirate but the construction contract was only awarded in 2024.
The project will include three MGM Resorts brands: MGM, Bellagio and Aria. Right in the middle of those three brands will sit the so-called Dubai Sphere, with its plans being unveiled by MGM Resorts’ CEO and president, Bill Hornbuckle, during the Skift Global Forum.
“[In Dubai] there will be three properties sitting on a large podium and in the middle of it is a sphere. Not as big as the sphere in Las Vegas by any stretch but equally compelling. It has 300 seats with a mini showroom and the visual things you’d obviously do inside a sphere”, Hornbuckle explained. “It will have a show line that walks through the history of Dubai. The first time I went, I thought [Dubai] was Las Vegas on steroids. In 1985 it was desert and literally 35 years later it’s this ‘megatropolis’ with three million people. We’re going to tell that story.”
As mentioned, the Dubai Sphere will be much smaller than its Las Vegas counterpart and the new construction is not part of Sphere Entertainment, the company behind the Las Vegas Sphere, even though MGM Resorts might be looking for a partner in the future to run the venue. With just 300 seats, the capacity of the Dubai Sphere is no-way near Las Vegas Sphere’s 18,600 seats.
So far, no opening date has been set for the complex but according to Hornbuckle, progress is being made. Dubai’s MGM Resort will be a non-gaming complex at the moment, even though this could change in the future if the country’s policy changes.
“We ended up in Dubai with a non-gaming hotel project – a large one – worth over $2 billion with an MGM, Bellagio and an Aria”, Hornbuckle commented. “Once you get there and gaming is socially accepted – not for Emiratis by the way – but 80-90% of the [UAE] population are non-Emirati. India is a massive market, the rest of the Middle East could be massive, China will continue to come to Dubai, so we’re excited by what it presents and we hope to be there.”
A spokesperson of MGM Resorts later clarified that “there is no declaration or announcement of gaming [for Dubai], we’re just hoping that as the region starts to open up to gaming, it becomes a possibility, but we’ve only bid on gaming for Abu Dhabi.”
