I seem to recall during construction of the Sphere, it was referred to as the MSG Sphere. I haven't heard the MSG reference since its actual opening. Did/does MSG have any stake in the Sphere?
Yes, MSG (short for the Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp.) and Sphere share a direct corporate lineage, if you will. The two were split into separate publicly traded companies in April 2023.
The company initially known as MSG Entertainment spun off its traditional live-events venues, like Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall, renamed itself Sphere Entertainment Co., and kept the Sphere venue as its namesake and centerpiece. It also owns MSG Networks, which broadcasts regional sports for teams like the New York Knicks.
Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp., meanwhile, now owns and operates the Madison Square Garden arena, the Theater at Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the Rockettes.
The two are still tied closely together by James Dolan, executive chairman, and CEO, and controlling shareholder of both corporations, among other businesses. For example, Dolan also owns the New York Knicks, which recently won the NBA Championship for the first time in 53 years (we can't say it enough!).
In our own coverage of Sphere, we referred to it as MSG Sphere from our first mention of the proposed arena in March 2018 all the way up to April 2023, when the MSG was officially stripped from the name.
Then, in October of that year, just after the arena opened, we honored "the Sphere" with the number-one value in the Top Ten, only to be contacted by the company.
“It’s not THE Sphere,” we were admonished. “It’s Sphere.”
“Really?" we responded. "You mean like, ‘I’m going to Sphere tonight’ or ‘It’s gonna cost me $225 to park and take a date to see that travel show at Sphere’”?
“Yes.”
“Uh, okay.”
Ever since, we've always called it "Sphere," though we see plenty of news outlets that apparently never got that direct memo and still call it "the Sphere."
