Las Vegas Sphere Reports $98.4 Million Loss; CFO Quits – Slashdot

Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed
Nickname:
Password:
Nickname:
Password:
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
“Pretty much EVERYBODY at some point in their careers has been dressed down….it’s part of life.”
Dressed down, yes. Yelled at, no. That’s not acceptable.
Yep. If you can’t tell someone they fucked up without yelling, you shouldn’t be in charge of anything.
Doubly so if you rely on highly-skilled, highly-compensated employees. They know they can get other — usually better — jobs and can weather a few months of unplanned vacation.
Right. How did the CFO even allegedly fuck up though? It’s not his job to make the company profitable, unless they wanted him to cook the books or something.

Pretty much EVERYBODY at some point in their careers has been dressed down….it’s part of life.
If you haven’t yet, then you’ve either not been in the workforce long enough, or you do a pretty low level, meaningless job…or work with no innovation or no heavy responsibility.
Geez, if I’d have given up and just quit every time someone got pissed at me at work…I’d not have made it very far on my journey up the levels and through the jobs over these many years…
If it happens ALL the time and over something minor, ok that’s something different…you report that, etc.
But in this case, a new company, MAJOR investment, lots of $$$ at stake and you’ve losing money badly and you are the CFO….man up a bit. Argue back…don’t just be a coward and run off with your tail between your legs, quit and give up.
That reaction makes me think that perhaps these problems WERE his fault and he’s inept and not fit to work at this top level where there is stress and accountability for high performance.
No this doesn’t and shouldn’t happen ALL the time, but grow a bit of skin.
Over my professional life…I’ve had a few shouting matches with FU’s traded with bosses….
Usually everyone walks off, cools off….apologizes, and you get back to work problem solving.
I’d never seen anyone pussy out and quit over a bad day at work….but maybe that’s an older generation.
Nah, there’s a difference between being dressed down and having a middle-aged man shouting at you and throwing a tantrum like a toddler. I’d wager that the people who suck it up and figure that’s just how it is are the true pussies. Me, I have enough self-respect that if someone wants to berate me and act like a child who can’t control their emotions I would just laugh and head on over to HR to resign. I know that my skills are high enough in demand that I can find a new job. Life is too short to put up with such childish behavior and pretend that it somehow makes you a stronger person.
I don’t think he’ll be running with his tail between his legs but with enough money to make this a comfortable and prudent move. Also, he won’t be the CFO on the books when this thing tanks. People who know their stuff and don’t like being made scapegoats don’t take shit from bosses with temper issues. They don’t need to. His boss gave him a way out and he took it.
Or this could’ve been a regular occurrence and he’d had enough of it.
I’ve never been yelled at while at work by a boss. Not even once. If I had been, I’d have quit on the spot because that’s unprofessional behavior and a warning sign of a boss with a personality disorder.
I did actually quit a job where a manager berated me in public about something that I thought would better have been handled in private. He didn’t yell, and I didn’t quit right away, but that was the one event that had me sending out resumes.
I’m now retired, so thankfully don’t have to deal with nonsens

…man up a bit. Argue back…don’t just be a coward and run off with your tail between your legs, quit and give up.
You talk as if you know what the conversation was about. Maybe it was a lover quarrel. Try projecting in the mirror.
Looks like you triggered the youngsters, there.
So the recipient of an unprofessional outburst from someone who should know better is supposed to just take it?
My guess is that the company is not doing well and some are taking it especially badly and taking that out on others. I wouldn’t blame someone jumping ship for both an unprofessional workplace and that company looking like it’s foundering.
Sounds like you’re a shitty boss. I don’t go to work to get yelled at.
Lol, no. I’ve been around when stuff like this went down, and it’s always been the people yelling that were handling it poorly, and almost always it was them trying to shift the blame as well.
The CEO should *never* lose his cool and lash out. NEVER. If you ever see that happening, you should immediately begin looking for a new job with a different company: it is a sign that the company is doing poorly and the CEO can’t find a way to fix that.
Ehh, in this case there are countless stories out of NY about James Dolan and his terrible management and people skills. He’s not like a Marc Cuban who earned his money, he’s the son of a successful businessman (Charles Dolan) who basically inherited what he’s working with today while also pretty much ruining what should be very successful sports franchises, especially the Knicks who have been joke for decades now with Dolan seemingly more concerned about keeping their rich stock broker audience than a tea
Mar Cuban “earned” his money by pirating live commercial content, re-streaming it on the internet and then accepting a ludicrous buyout from Yahoo that is generally considered the worst tech acquisition of all time. That’s all broadcast.com was
It’s an interesting question, do we have more respect for a regular joe who got lucky in the dot.com VC boom (he says he got lucky himself) to millions or a nepotism baby who inherited it from his successful dad? This is all relative amongst the uber-wealthy of course.
For sure we don’t know enough to be sure in this case but James Dolan is essentially a bad PR machine and from everything we know in history we are dealing with a narcissist here. This a guy on whose wiki page the “Controversies” section is the largest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/… [wikipedia.org]
The Sphere looks amazing. But if it’s running that kind of loss, at some point corners are going to get cut, or it’s going to shut down altogether… better try to see it over the next several months if you have any interest.

The Sphere looks amazing. But if it’s running that kind of loss, at some point corners are going to get cut…
I doubt that even someone with an MBA could do that.
Seriously, if they’re anything like vegas casinos, they’ll hire a sphere security force. Which is middle aged men cosplaying as army soldiers getting paid min wage. (Caesars, go to stage door in vegas and see their sweet van, lol). They’ll walk around the streets handing out bills when they see people looking at the sphere.
The thing cost multiple billions so I doubt MSG financed it themselves out of pocket but in that case I wonder what business plan they sold to investors and banks to finance this thing? What was their plan for expected revenue output versus operating costs and what they will have to presumably pay back.
I feel like they probably have runway for at least a full year of operations but after than, man, someone like MGM or LiveNation gonna pick this place up for pennies on the dollar I imagine but even still, ca

But if it’s running that kind of loss, at some point corners are going to get cut,
Unfortunately for them, there are no corners to cut. It’s a sphere.
There are many uses for such an auditorium like that. Want to save it? Start using the hell out of it.
But that’s beside the point…Am I the only one who vaguely remembers but one or two events marketed as a demonstration for this place?
That happened less than 60 days ago. When the place opened the doors.
The hell are we doing here bitching about a loss already less than a fiscal quarter from opening the damn doors on a multi-billion dollar project? Was the CFO named Noshitz Sherlock? I mean I know we g
The hell are we doing here bitching about a loss already less than a fiscal quarter from opening the damn doors on a multi-billion dollar project
That is a great point, and the next quarter should be pretty good with all of the revenue from the U2 shows this entire time…
I do wonder what kinds of other things they have coming to help bring people into the Sphere on a regular basis. Seems like setting up a show for that space is a lot of custom work.
It seems like an absolutely incredible venue if you can get that team of experts together to make the process of developing or converting to present in the venue. Target current planetarium-style films and presentations to convert to that format as perhaps a fast-track offering, and get the ivy league schools to sponsor that educational trip to the Sphere a few times a quarter.
Offer a solution that allows others to develop music concerts for the Sphere. No such thing as a ‘bad’ seat if you do it right. G
The first event at the venue was only a day or two before the quarter ended. Not sure why the financial loss is a big deal. Most people lose money on buildings before they’re actually used.
It might help a little bit if they were planning more events than just a couple of U2 shows.
There is almost nothing planned. They should have had bookings filled for the first year or two before the grand opening.
https://seatgeek.com/venues/ms… [seatgeek.com]
I was in Vegas recently and looked into it. I saw ticket prices starting at $75 and thought “U2 for $75? What a deal!” Then I saw that it wasn’t for U2 of course, it was for a travelogue, “Postcard from Earth”. Perhaps it’s a worthy show, but back during the hype period The Sphere was described as a “U2 residency”. It sounds more like U2 drops by every few months when they’re slummin’ in the states.
I too was surprised when I saw that those were the only two things scheduled.
They are going to have to do a bunch of shows each month to cover operating costs (much less begin to pay off the development costs) and so far they have done.. one? Of course it is operating at a loss. Most business ventures plan to operate at a loss for the first year or more as they ramp up.

The Sphere in Las Vegas reported an operating loss of $98.4 million for the fiscal quarter ending Sept. 30, Sphere Entertainment Co. said this morning on an earnings call.

Sphere, the $2.3 billion venue near the Strip that opened Sept. 29
So was there any expectation that it would, somehow, generate a profit in one day??? They had to know it would be a loss for that quarter. Was it somehow bigger than expected? I can’t imagine the figure was a huge shock.

Or was this a news outlet trying to drum up views?
The resignation was not due to the reported loss. If anyone should resign over a large loss, it’s the CEO, not the CFO.
As other have said, the resignation was likely due to the CEO yelling at the CFO. That’s completely unprofessional behavior and is sign that working there is not a good idea.
Some years ago, I witnessed the CEO of my employer yelling at the head lawyer of the company. At the time, the company was engaged in a major lawsuit that eventually resulted in the company effectively disappearing. The
Well, i’m sure Level 200 and most of 300, it’s amazing, but not at level 400 for a U2 concert, with the $400 cheap seats.
I did the “post card” show on level 300 prior to the U2 concert, that was cool, The “immersive” audio was “ok”. The technical bits to make it the same for everyone is cool. Objects on the screen correlated with the audio well, despite being off set to the left. The video, lots of ghosting on the sides, felt like I was watching a LCD screen from 15 years ago. In section 300 it did feel
Interesting. I used to be a soundman at an arena/large theater/small theater/expo hall complex, and I appreciate your more technical description of the venue.
Our large theater had excellent sound, once we replaced the originally installed Bose system with JBLs. The arena was, of course, an arena–not designed for a sublime audio experience. One time Rush came to play. They had their own sound, so I wasn’t working it, but came to see the show. I had a chance to walk around and hear and compare for myself whe
$19 for bud light so no one is buying anything at the bar
Boxed wine is the best value for sneaking in. Ditch the cardboard box and you’re left with a flexible plastic bag and a spout with a valve, which can easily be ‘worn’. The goal of the group is to protect the contraband and mule using distraction, whatever.
Or you could just carry a flask and not have to worry about strapping crap to your body.
$45 for a mixed drink.
Yeah, that’s a non-starter. I am amazed that anyone would pay that.
To me, the Sphere is simply too gaudy for Vegas. I know that sounds improbable, but it seems completely out of place compared to the rest of The Strip. Every picture I’ve seen of it shows it looming over everything like the bald head of some monster appearing from the ground.
While Vegas has always been known for its showiness, there is a difference between 24 hour lights and showgirls and a giant monolithic sphere watching over the city. It’s akin to someone trying too hard to show off,.
I think that’s a bit of marketing perspective, when I was out in LV earlier this year when it was still under construction I was expecting it to be larger. May have been my expectations but I was expecting to dominate the space in real life a bit more than it did. Very cool still.
You can notice a lot of the photos of it are shot with the strip in the background and not many from strip itself in it’s direction.
Good reference! That Mofo [wikipedia.org] operates Madison Square Gardens (MSG) too. Your reference doesn’t mention it, but MSG Entertainment went full-on fascist at the beginning of this year [arstechnica.com]. He’s the guy!
The Sphere opened on September 29th, 1 day before the quarter ended:
The Sphere in Las Vegas reported an operating loss of $98.4 million for the fiscal quarter ending Sept. 30 …
opened Sept. 29 with the start of U2’s multimonth residency
So I doubt the loss for the quarter means much; just that it lost money completing construction before opening.
As for the guy quitting, why would a rich person (CFO for a multibillion dollar company, he’s rich) work for a shitty boss instead of fucking off to the Baham

I think part of the problem is people used to think Vegas was an inexpensive holiday – Cheap hotels, cheap buffets, free drinks while playing cheap blackjack or cheap slot machines, cheap magic shows. Now, a basic weekend hotel room on the strip is $350, a poolside Michelob is $20 after tip, and Penn and Teller tickets for the family cost $400.
LV hasn’t been cheap since the ’80s and has gone down hill since then. They have tried everything from “family friendly” to the current 20s something status showoff. The only thing that seems to work is catering to the gambling addicts/fanatics by making $10 BJ tables the norm. Go to eat at some decent restaurants and see an occasional show, the rest has just become like living in an used car salesman’s wet dream.
There may be more comments in this discussion. Without JavaScript enabled, you might want to turn on Classic Discussion System in your preferences instead.
Google Offered Epic $147 Million To Launch Fortnite on the Play Store
Microsoft Won’t Let You Close OneDrive on Windows Until You Explain Yourself
People who go to conferences are the ones who shouldn’t.

source