UFC 306 at The Sphere: MSG Entertainment’s Joel Fisher Goes Inside the Venue’s First Live Sports Event

Next-gen technology will be deployed to create a different kind of live-event experience

On Saturday night, a new era in live sports television will dawn with the first-ever live sports event to be hosted at The Sphere in Las Vegas. UFC 306: Noche UFC is being dubbed a “once-in-a-lifetime immersive sporting event” that will deploy Sphere’s next-gen tech to create an entirely different kind of live-event experience. Following more than a year of planning and collaboration between the UFC and the venue’s owner, Madison Square Garden Entertainment, Saturday night’s event will finally bring the power of The Sphere to sports events. 

MSG Entertainment’s Joel Fisher: “This combination of entertainment and the sporting event itself is harnessing the enormous power of technology and creating this transformative environment.”

UFC President/CEO Dana White, who says the event cost $20 million to produce, calls UFC 306 a “love letter” to Mexico and a tribute to the Mexican people for their contributions to combat sports. In celebration of Mexican Independence Day, UFC has created a series of films that will take over the 160,000-sq.-ft., 16Kx16K-resolution interior display plane during the event. In addition to the world’s highest-resolution LED display and advanced concert-grade audio system, fans inside The Sphere will be able to actually feel the action, thanks to the venue’s haptic seats, which provide force feedback based on the action in the Octagon. In addition, the Exosphere will be used throughout the night with key art and highlights to bring fans closer to the event, while in-house stats and information feeds integrate real-time stats and fighter information on the interior display plane of Sphere.

In anticipation of this historic production, SVG sat down with Joel Fisher, EVP, marquee events and operations, Madison Square Garden Entertainment, to discuss how UFC came to be the first sport to take place in The Sphere, his company’s collaborative relationship with White and the UFC, what fans can expect inside — and outside — the venue on Saturday night, the key differences between presenting a U2 concert experience and a sports event at The Sphere, and what other sports he expects to welcome to the venue in the future.

How did the initial idea for this event came about?
We [at Madison Square Garden] have a long history with the UFC, including helping them get sanctioned for the first event in New York with UFC 205. We invited Dana [White] to see U2 at The Sphere, and he was absolutely blown away. He called me the next day to say UFC wanted to be the first live sporting event in The Sphere. That was the beginning of months of conversations and planning.

Once the event was finalized, what did the early planning stages look like?
We all agreed that, if we were going to do this and do it right, we needed to plan well in advance and have a unified vision of what this was going to look like. About a year ago, I met with Craig Borsari [chief content officer/executive producer] and Pete Dropick [EVP, event development and operations] during a Top Rank boxing event at [Madison Square] Garden, and we worked closely together from that point forward to ensure that everything was perfect.

The Sphere was a vision directly from our Chairman/CEO Jim Dolan. He wanted to create this new medium that disrupted the traditional venue model and shook up an industry that hasn’t been innovated in a long time. To be able to deliver the first live sporting event and broadcast it to the world — there will be as many as a billion people watching — is very exciting for both us and UFC.

What will the experience be like for fans on Saturday night?
The experience starts before you’ve even entered [the venue] because we have the exosphere, which creates a one-of-a-kind visual experience. Once you get into the building, fans will be able to explore and interact with immersive-technology experiences in the Atrium. The UFC is taking over the entire Atrium and decorating it around the theme of Mexican Independence Day. The second you walk in, you’ll feel that you’re immersed in this special event, including a mariachi band and a variety of content on the different displays.

We also have plenty of exciting moments leading up to the fight. On Thursday, we are doing the press conference right outside in one of the parking lots with The Sphere as the background. On Friday, they will do the weigh-in outside in front of The Sphere with UFC creative [content] on the exosphere. UFC is also doing a fan fest starting on Friday and running through the pre-fight preparations on Saturday.

On fight night, fans are going to experience something that literally has never been seen before in sports. We’ve worked with UFC on six films that will be [displayed] on our incredible 16K media plane. These interstitials will be seen throughout the night between the fights and will provide a tribute to Mexico and their history and fighting in MMA. It should be incredible. I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of the storyboards and content that they’re presenting, and it’s going to be a genuine spectacle.

We also have an audio system that is unlike anything else you’ve ever heard, as well as haptic seats so that [fans] will actually feel it when somebody gets hit or hits the canvas. People inside the building are going to get this overall experience that you simply cannot match in a regular venue.

What are the major differences between presenting a concert or entertainment event at The Sphere and producing a sports event? What are the primary factors you have to consider?
I have to go back to Jim’s original vision. He recognized that people increasingly wanted a “we” experience that could be shared. It’s more powerful when you bring all these people together. He had the vision of harnessing the power of all this cutting-edge technology to ignite all the senses and transport audiences to places both real and imagined.

When you think of a sporting event at a regular arena, you’re coming and watching the sporting event, and that’s it. This is so different, because it’s a combination of entertainment and the sporting event itself. It’s harnessing the enormous power of technology, and you’re creating this transformative environment where communities come together. I think, in a lot of ways, this will revolutionize the live experience because you’re coming and you’re watching the fights but you’re also being entertained by what the UFC has created.

How will that massive LED Media Plane be used during the event?
It’s a great question, and UFC has obviously planned for that with us. When they’re running these interstitials on the media plane, there will also be picture-in-picture screens so that you can see the fighters enter the arena and what’s happening in the Octagon. In addition, they will also be showing stats and facts about the fighters. While UFC is using the media plane for the interstitial movies — or “worlds,” as they call them — that they have created, they can also use the media plane to show the fights, statistics, and other elements that build this story around Mexico and the fighters themselves.

Once Saturday’s event is finished, what can we expect next from The Sphere in terms of sports events?
Well, I think that we already learned a lot from the NHL Draft, which pretty much everybody thought was great and translated incredibly well to the broadcast TV. With this being the first live sporting event, I think we will learn a lot more about how this all translates to being broadcast live to the world.

We want to do a lot of these types of events, and I know that esports, wrestling, boxing have come up as some good opportunities. We’ve also been approached about doing tennis, which could be very interesting. It’s obviously not a basketball or hockey arena, but there are a lot of opportunities that we see to host live sports at The Sphere.

We also want to do watch parties. We were partners with the NFL when they had the Super Bowl in Las Vegas last year; we partnered [with the league] to show a lot of content on the exosphere. We want to continue to develop the technology so we can use The Sphere for watch parties for big-time events like the World Cup and Super Bowl. We’ve been speaking to all kinds of leagues and organizations about doing that.

What do you hope to learn from this weekend that you can apply to future sports events at The Sphere?
I think this is where the world is going in terms of live sports and entertainment. Jim was way ahead of the curve, and I think this event will prove it. Dana, to his credit, wanted to be the first sporting event in The Sphere, and it should be an incredible experience. Again, it’s not just the fights that you’re going to see; it’s the entire experience. I think we’ll learn a lot from just seeing what Dana and the UFC have done for this event. This is going to be a spectacular event, and I know that everyone in our organization is extremely excited to see it come to life.

CLICK HERE for SVG’s story on UFC’s groundbreaking production in Las Vegas.