Abu Dhabi Gets 10-Year License for Sphere Venues in MENA Region

Sphere Entertainment is handing over building and operating rights to the Abu Dhabi government for the whole of the Middle East and North Africa, effectively making them Sphere’s only international development team.

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism will lead Sphere expansion across the Middle East and North Africa for at least a decade, starting with the upcoming Abu Dhabi venue.

Sphere Entertainment has granted Abu Dhabi exclusive rights to develop all future Sphere venues in the region, according to an SEC filing this week.

“DCT also has the exclusive right to build and operate additional Sphere venues in the geographic region spanning the Middle East and North Africa (the ‘Exclusive Region’) for a period of at least 10 years after the opening date of Sphere Abu Dhabi,” Sphere Entertainment stated.

Neither Sphere Entertainment nor DCT Abu Dhabi responded to Skift’s request for comment.

Abu Dhabi and Sphere Entertainment first unveiled their partnership in October 2024, with plans to construct a second Sphere in the UAE capital. The Abu Dhabi Sphere is expected to match the scale of the Las Vegas original, which seats about 20,000.

During a brand talk at the Skift Asia Forum 2025, Abdulla Yousuf, international operations director at DCT Abu Dhabi, said the venue is likely to open “around 2030.”

“Sphere is going to have an identical twin in Abu Dhabi,” Yousuf said. “It’s focusing on live tourism, it’s combining high-tech with storytelling.”

The SEC filing does not detail how many venues may follow or where they could be located. But a trail of trademark applications filed by Sphere Entertainment hints at possible sites.

In September 2024, the company registered both “Sphere Doha” and “Sphere Qatar” with that country’s IP office. The following month, “Sphere Oman” was filed with Oman’s national IP body. In February, generic Sphere trademarks appeared in Bahrain. Most recently, trademarks for “Sphere Israel” were lodged this month.

In its first-quarter earnings call, Sphere Entertainment Chairman James Dolan hinted that not all future venues would follow Las Vegas’ blueprint. The company is actively designing smaller-scale Spheres that could roll out more quickly and cost-effectively in international markets.

“We’re definitely talking worldwide about Sphere,” Dolan said. “But we do have another initiative that I think is very important that we are undertaking this year. We’re right in the middle of designing a smaller Sphere deployable in markets inside and out of the U.S. The strategy there is to build faster, cheaper, and have an ROI that makes investors enthusiastic.”

“I expect by the end of the year, we’ll be talking about that smaller Sphere product as another way of expanding the business, as well as continuing to build [larger] Spheres like in Abu Dhabi and other markets,” he added.

September 16-18, 2025 - NEW YORK CITY