Various Sphere Related Bits

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2023-08-25)

We’ve received a couple of reports of people being able to sell tickets for seats at the Sphere via Ticketmaster. This however, is not what fans have been waiting for. Ticketmaster appears to be making low-ball offers to buy back tickets sold initially through the fan club presale. The offer is visible when you view your tickets. One friend was offered $150 per ticket, for tickets that initially had a face value of $269. If you receive such an offer, watch the price being offered, as it may be significantly lower than you paid via the initial fan club sales. It is not clear what tickets are getting these offers, but everyone we spoke to bought in the initial sale via the U2.com offer, and all were holding one of the lower priced tickets.

Just a heads up, if you do want to sell your seats, you can transfer them via Ticketmaster now, if you are not selling them through Ticketmaster. That functionality has been turned on for some time now. Ticketmaster is still not allowing seated tickets to be listed for fans to sell at face value, or any other value. We urge you to use caution when selling / buying tickets, and take advantage of any purchase protection options you can. (i.e. in PayPal, make sure you do a transaction, and not a friends and family payment.)

At this point it, with just five weeks to go until opening night, it looks like Ticketmaster will not be opening the option to resell seated tickets on their platform.

There were reports the Sphere was damaged by winds and rain when tropical storm Hilary hit Vegas. Not the case, the Sphere was displaying test patterns on purpose, and they took the night off from showing some of the splashier screens, but no damage was caused by the storm according to Newsweek.

Vibee still hasn’t delivered tickets to those who bought hotel and VIP packages. The packages were purchased when tickets went on sale, with a promise that tickets would be delivered six to eight weeks before the show.

Well it’s five weeks now until the first show, and not a ticket has been delivered. The FAQ at Vibee for the September 29 show still lists, “All tickets will be delivered digitally via Ticketmaster 6-8 weeks before the show.”

Fans are starting to get concerned and would like to know where their tickets are.

Update August 26: Although not sent out when we published this story yesterday, we are told that late last night, Vibee started sending out tickets for the first two U2 shows at the Sphere, and should continue to move through the shows in order in the coming days.

The Sphere has announced that it is a “no bag” facility. Large bags will not be allowed and only “small cutches, purses and fanny packs” no larger than 6-inches x 6-inches x 2-inches will be allowed in. (15.2 × 15.2 × 5cm) Exceptions will be made for diaper bags or bags required for medical items, but all exceptions will be screened, either visually or by X-Ray.

The prohibited items for the Sphere are also listed:

  • Weapons, firearms, knives
  • Laser pens
  • Pepper spray/mace
  • Signs, banners, flags
  • Selfie sticks
  • Video cameras/recording devices
  • Outside food and beverage, including alcohol
  • Glass, cans, aluminum bottles
  • Hoverboards and skateboards
  • Cowbells and airhorns

Did anyone get a surprise they can’t bring their hoverboard?

There’s going to be a lot of attention on the drummer filling in for Larry Mullen at these shows, Bram van den Berg. The Dutch drummer has some extra pressure on opening night, not only is he meeting U2 fandom for the first time, but it’s also his 41st birthday. Anyone want to organize a singalong to Happy Birthday for Bram at the end of the show if Bono doesn’t get us to sing during the show?

The Sphere has shared that the floor area is rated to hold 1840 people, including those in the Red Zone. This is different from information we had been given earlier that the GA area would hold 2400 people. Regardless, new VIP and hotel packages are being advertised with floor tickets this week on Facebook. Red zone was initially listed as 50 people per show when those tickets went on sale.

Want to see what the outside of the Sphere is up to at any point of the day? The Live stream below is via Set Jet, and has a camera trained on the Sphere 24/7

NOTE: Image used for promoting this story is a mock-up from the initial promo video and recent leaks of the view inside of the sphere.

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