Once upon a time, if an artist was booked to do a residency in Las Vegas, it meant they were getting older, past their prime, or otherwise washed up. Not so, these days.
After hit makers like Adele, Christina Aguilera, and Usher made Las Vegas a hotspot for performers at the heights of their careers, more acts than ever are looking to get in on the action — including, reportedly, Beyoncé.
According to The New York Post, the Las Vegas Sphere owner James Dolan (who also owns Madison Square Garden and the Knicks basketball team) is in talks with the Renaissance singer to have her own residency at the brand-new venue when U2’s own run ends next year.
The Post notes that both Jay-Z, Beyoncé’s husband, and her mom, Tina Knowles, have toured the Sphere, but her team wants $10 million for the residency — the same amount U2 earned for their own 36-date stay. While this would seem to be good for the venue’s operators, because of the upfront payments, they could actually make much less money than they would for a usual concert. The majority of the Sphere’s revenue comes from suite sales and advertising on the LED exterior of the venue, and it’s already lost a little under $100 million since it was completed and opened earlier this year.
Still, a Beyoncé residency would be nothing to shake a stick at, as her fans have already proven they’ll collectively shell out the GDP of a small country to see the Queen live.