Madison Square Garden Entertainment, the company behind the iconic venue in New York, has won the right to build a 21,500-capacity spherical arena in Stratford, E20.
After a tense, five-hour meeting of the London Legacy Development Corporation planning committee last night (22 March), members voted six to four in favour of the Populous-designed venue, which will be built on a seven-acre triangular site behind the Westfield Stratford City shopping mall.
An MSG Entertainment spokesperson said: “We are pleased that the planning committee voted in support of our vision for MSG Sphere. Throughout this process we have worked closely with a wide range of stakeholders and are grateful for their collaboration, which is reflected in our detailed proposal. We now look forward to progressing on to the next steps in the approval process.”
Final planning permission for MSG Sphere London cannot formally be issued by the LLDC until the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, confirms that he is content for permission to be granted and the planning legal agreement, including section 106 arrangements, is completed. The plans will now be sent to Khan for approval.
Opponents of the scheme pointed out that none of the elected members of the LLDC voted in favour of the scheme, which has proved controversial with residents.
Newham Council has been vocal in its opposition to the plans, and has two councillors on the LLDC planning committee.
See also: Will Stratford’s new music venue rival the O2?
MSG has claimed that 85% of the local public are in favour of its plans, based on a 2019 survey. However, campaigners point out that the same survey results show that only 11% of those questioned actually knew about the proposals.
One of the core concerns is MSG’s plan to use the outside of the sphere as a giant advertising hoarding. The LED displays would be approximately the size of the London Eye. At the planning meeting, MSG’s representatives said the advertising was fundamental to the viability of the scheme, and without it the project could not be built.
Differing views
The LLDC’s planning officers said the venue “would provide an attractive visual backdrop for people living, working, enjoying recreational time, visiting and travelling through the metropolitan town centre”.
But others disagreed, including the elected members of the committee, with one local politician asking: “Is this the legacy of the committee? Blackout blinds for local residents?”
Under the terms of the planning approval, the external advertising will be reviewed after five years.
The site, which was used as a coach park during the 2012 Olympics, will now be developed by MSG as a “state-of-the-art music and entertainment venue that will pioneer the next generation of immersive experiences”.
The approval comes three years after the application was originally lodged. MSG, which submitted the planning application to the LLDC in 2018, bought the site from Westfield for £60m in 2017. Westfield paid London & Continental Railways £9m for the site just two years before.
At the time the plans were submitted, Jayne McGivern, MSG’s executive vice-president for development and construction, told EG: “In the words of Captain Kirk, we are boldly going where no man has gone before.”
The finer details
MSG said it had taken the time between submission of the plans and now to finesse many of the details and consult with residents to best address their concerns and wishes. This includes changes to the entrances, a significant reduction in the amount of digital advertising billboards on the site and restrictions on when the Sphere will be illuminated.
It has also called out some of the opponents to the scheme, which have been linked to US entertainment giant AEG, which runs the O2 arena in Greenwich, four miles away.
AEG said in a statement: “We believe the LLDC has made the wrong decision to resolve to grant approval for the MSG Sphere planning application in the face of strong objections from local residents, local community groups, ourselves and the local council, Newham, in which the venue will sit.
“If it comes to it, we will be calling on the mayor of London to uphold his election promise to do what’s best for Londoners, including the residents of Newham who are having this huge development forced on them, by directing refusal.”
It added: “As we have always maintained, AEG does not oppose competition in the live entertainment industry, and specifically does not oppose another large music venue in London. But we do believe that Madison Square Garden’s scheme is fundamentally the wrong proposal, in the wrong location, and is technically fundamentally flawed.”
Fully immersive experience
The planning approval came as MSG Entertainment named Lucas Watson as MSG Sphere president. Watson, who takes up the post on Monday (28 March), will lead the strategy and execution of all business aspects of the company’s plans to build orb-shaped venues in London and Las Vegas.
MSG said its planned venues would “combine cutting-edge technology with multi-sensory storytelling to deliver fully immersive experiences”.
The first MSG Sphere venue – at the Venetian hotel and casino resort in Las Vegas – is currently under construction and is scheduled to open in the second half of 2023.
Watson will also be charged with looking for opportunities to build more spheres in further markets. He will be based in Burbank, California, and report to James Dolan, executive chairman and chief executive of MSG Entertainment.
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