California New 'Cosm' Immersive Sports-Watching Dome is Amazing - and Expensive (sfgate.com)
- Reference: 0174997825
- News link: https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/24/09/15/0155226/california-new-cosm-immersive-sports-watching-dome-is-amazing---and-expensive
- Source link: https://www.sfgate.com/la/article/california-betting-big-on-sphere-for-sports-cosm-19743127.php
So now Los Angeles and Dallas have massive 9,600-square-foot, 8K-resolution screens that [2]one reviewer for SFGate calls "an absolute game-changer" for sports fans. "At its best, Cosm's floor-to-ceiling screen gives anyone with a seat the opportunity to embrace a face full of on-the-field action at such high quality that it can be staggering, almost overwhelming at times — so just be sure to hold on tight, to the handrails and to your wallets."
There's also a bar with a 150-foot band of screens and a rooftop area with mounted TV, but they're "not why anyone has come," SFGate points out. Even the Dome has three distinct floors, though it's the second floor "where full visual immersion happens."
> The action feels so close, I can almost smell it, and all the focus is pulled to the center of the giant screen. Patrons truly do feel at the absolute heart of the action, with better seats than perhaps they could even pay for at Manchester's Old Trafford stadium. From a sports-viewing standpoint, I can't imagine it gets much better than this... Over the course of just a few minutes, the viewing angle flips from corner looks to right up against the goalkeeper's net, and then it widens out to dead center to catch crisp passes. Some angles put me right in the stands, cheering along with the loyalists at a stadium half a world away...
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> To be clear, the premium ticket costs are good for recouping Cosm's substantial investment in this gorgeous technological product, which has been in the works for years. The price tag is also likely to be little issue for any Los Angeles fan with money to spend, but the cost really does lay bare the growing division between the haves and have-nots in American sports society... If you paid $20 for a general admission entry that mostly just grants access to the fringes of the action, well ... good luck getting the most out of the Dome... The edges of the massive screen are stretched to comic effect, making the fisheye perspective more disorienting than fun. At the center of the room, it feels like you're absolutely in the meat of the action; at the fringes, you're left to pick at a few digital bones...
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> [F]or the rest of us, the normal sports fans who like to sway with strangers during the seventh-inning stretch, the ones who want to be able to take their kids to a game without feeling quite so financially wrung out, Cosm is yet another troubling sign of big, expensive things to come. Being a fan of a sports franchise in 2024 is an increasingly costly proposition. Watching your favorite NFL team now requires cable access, as well as multiple streaming services like Amazon Prime... There is no question that Cosm is a unique experience and that it will absolutely have a hand in transforming the modern digital sports-watching landscape, especially for those who want a digital re-creation of the best seat in the house over the camaraderie of a shared, in-person sports experience. The place will be able to charge incredible sums for the Super Bowl or World Series games, and — when at its best, with a prime seat in the middle of the action — the cost will be justifiable for many.
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> But for the folks at the financial fringes, the ones with the most spirit and often the least to spend, Cosm undoubtedly feels like a widening of the economic chasm that is pulling fans and their favorite teams further apart.
Besides sports events, Cosm's Dome also offers other immersive experiences like [3]Circque du Soleil's "O" and Planetary Collective's " [4]Orbital ".
Another Cosm location is [5]planned for Phoenix in 2025 .
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMQbcGU_zkM
[2] https://www.sfgate.com/la/article/california-betting-big-on-sphere-for-sports-cosm-19743127.php
[3] https://www.cosm.com/los-angeles/series-events/cirque_du_soleil_2024_series
[4] https://www.cosm.com/partnerships/planetary-collective
[5] https://www.cosm.com/news/arizona-science-center-partners-with-cosm-to-reimagine-dorrance-planetarium-into-next-generation-8k-led-dome
Main takeaway from that story (Score:5, Insightful)
It's easier to milk sports fan than astronomy fans.
Manchester's Old Trafford stadium (Score:3)
If they want to have the full Old Trafford experience, there has to be a leaky roof so some of the spectators get drenched if it rains. Manchester has a similar climate to Seattle - it rains a lot.
This is nothing like Baltimore's Mr Splash section either, the rain tends to be colder in Manchester.
What puzzles me... (Score:2)
What I find very puzzling (though likely impressive as a feat of marketing) is how sports franchises have successfully kept so many people relatively price-insensitive despite the fact that the various high-level teams are backed by a variety of farm/feeder teams and accompanied by assorted lower-tier leagues and things and even among top-tier teams only some are going to be above average, much less victorious, in a given year.
I could see it if there were a segment of the viewing public that was in it fo
Re: (Score:2)
Cheering for a losing team is part of the experience. If you're interested in the mindset, [1]Haruki Murakami wrote an essay about it in First Person Singular [amazon.com], which I can recommend.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/First-Person-Singular-Haruki-Murakami-ebook/dp/B08CTH8HXG
Re: (Score:2)
It seems to me that people really enjoy and value what all that money is paying for - top-notch athletics but also the excitement, grandeur, or hype if you will that makes it big enough to be a "lifestyle." The huge venues, the elaborately-produced broadcasts, being able to read about the athletes in the tabloids, year-round events like the draft and spring training, active online forums to argue with people about your team and heroes... it's all "big."
Just discovered meaning of "cheap seats" (Score:2)
The focus on the broad price spectrum to attend an event is, in a word, confusing.
I've gone to baseball games and watched from luxury boxes up high, and seats right down near the base line with wait staff to bring you concessions/beers. I've been to football (US) games and sat near the 50 yard line on the home team side and saw people up in the luxury boxes, and I've seen people sitting courtside at basketball games, with seats so expensive everyone knows the name of every person sitting courtside from the
Re: Just discovered meaning of "cheap seats" (Score:2)
What bothers me is that despite the headline, $20 was the only price mentioned in the summary.
Sounds ... awful? (Score:4, Interesting)
If I wanted to be "immersed", I would go to a game in person.
This sounds like a way to have all the expenses, all the crowds, all the inconvenience of leaving home, and ... still not actually being there?
(Guess I'm not the target audience though.)
Re: (Score:3)
I have been to many games in a few sports. Mostly thanks to corporate tickets.
Being at the game in any but the very first few rows is only immersive in terms of feeling like a part of the crowd. When it comes to the game itself, a 19" crt with rabbit ears is a better watch.
This sounds like a better way to experience the game than that granted by 95% of the seats.
Re: (Score:2)
> I have been to many games in a few sports. Mostly thanks to corporate tickets.
> Being at the game in any but the very first few rows is only immersive in terms of feeling like a part of the crowd. When it comes to the game itself, a 19" crt with rabbit ears is a better watch.
> This sounds like a better way to experience the game than that granted by 95% of the seats.
True ... the crowd part is always the part I didn't care for, but I can see how this would appeal to those who do enjoy it.
Must by why they have those big screens at concerts too. So you can "feel like you are there" even though you can't actually see anything without a screen, lol
Re: (Score:2)
The social aspect has to be it. Otherwise we wouldn't need this elaborate projection dome, because sitting alone with your Apple Vision Pros on would be the pinnacle. Visually, it works [1]very very well. [tomsguide.com]
[1] https://www.tomsguide.com/computing/vr-ar/i-watched-apples-new-immersive-video-on-the-vision-pro-and-it-could-change-sports-forever
Re: Sounds ... awful? (Score:2)
40 bucks gets you a great seat in section 420 of citizens bank park for a Phillies game. Plus, if you enjoy booing, you canâ(TM)t beat a Philly crowd.
Re: Sounds ... awful? (Score:2)
It gets difficult to watch a premier league game in a stadium ⦠when you live 5000 miles away in LA.
It sounds interesting to me at the very least. I wouldnâ(TM)t mind watching an Aussie Rules football game in it.
Re: (Score:2)
> It gets difficult to watch a premier league game in a stadium ⦠when you live 5000 miles away in LA.
That's a good point :D
Re: (Score:2)
It's a lot cheaper than the game ticket, and it shows games that happen in distant lands (mostly soccer, apparently). So it's a cool way to watch the game that is relatively convenient and immersive, although I agree that it's not as good as live.