The 2024 NHL Draft at the Sphere in Las Vegas. The 2024 NHL Draft at the Sphere in Las Vegas. (Joe Camporeale/USA Today Sports.)
By Andrew Bucholtz on

The Sphere in Las Vegas, constructed and run by Knicks’ owner James Dolan’s Madison Square Garden Company, has played host to a lot of concerts so far. Those have included U2, Phish, and Dead & Company, with the Eagles set to play there this fall. But the venue took a sports turn Friday night to host the NHL Draft, and that drew a lot of comment. Here’s what the Sphere X/Twitter account put out to introduce this:

Here are the U.S. (ESPN) and Canadian (Sportsnet) opens to those networks’ draft broadcasts:

The actual draft included prospects’ images being displayed on the Sphere’s curving walls, which many remarked upon:

As expected, the draft opened with the San Jose Sharks selecting Macklin Celebrini first overall. And that included cool visuals, but also a screaming Sharks’ fan:

There were some other odd moments, including No. 2 pick Artyom Levshunov not knowing what to do with a microphone (Ricky Bobby style) in his post-draft interview:

There were lots of unusual visuals beyond that as well:

And that drew a lot of comment, mostly in praise of the venue:

This was certainly an unusual move for both the NHL and the Sphere. But it seems to have largely been well-received.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz