Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSGE), the parent company for the multibillion-dollar MSG Sphere entertainment venue in Las Vegas, has announced that Lucas Watson has stepped down from his position as president of the venue.
The move was confirmed in an email to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and comes just one month after Watson spoke at the Vegas Chamber’s Preview 2023 event to tout the future prospects of the long-delayed development.
According to the Review-Journal, MSGE CEO and Executive Chairman James Dolan will take over the project for the time being—Dolan is well-known for his ownership of the flagship MSG venue in New York City as well as the New York Knicks and New York Rangers pro sports franchises.
Per the statement provided by MSGE, the company will be “simplifying and streamlining our commercial structure for the venue, while leveraging existing expertise across the MSG family of companies. With these changes, Lucas Watson has decided to exit the organization, and we wish him well in his future endeavors.”
Watson had been with the company for less than a year, and was stationed at its studio in Burbank, California, where a number of high-profile producers are said to be developing content for the Sphere.
All of that being said, his departure was categorized a bit differently by the New York Post, which asserted that ballooning costs were the reason for the dismissal.
The venue has gone well over its originally expected budget of approximately $1.6 billion, due to supply chain issues, inflation and technical difficulties. The total cost has now exceeded $2.1 billion.
Investors have begun to grow weary of the added costs, and there was much talk earlier this year that MSGE was mulling a sale of its stake in Tao Group, a luxury restaurant and nightclub chain, to help pay for the state-of-the-art venue.
Company officials have confirmed a September opening, and during the Super Bowl earlier this month, Irish supergroup U2 announced that they would be the ones to christen the venue with a short residence.
During his presentation at the Chamber’s Preview event, Watson had said that the company was planning to hire 3,000 additional staff, but that has yet to be confirmed following his departure.
