The UK government has declared that a final decision on the plan to build an MSG Sphere venue in East London should not be made just yet. Because Michael Gove wants to consider whether he should also consider the plan, even though MSG has already given up on the idea of building a Sphere complex in the capital.
A letter from Gove's team this week said a final decision should not be considered final so that he can consider whether he should consider what the final decision should be - or, in government parlance, "consider whether he should direct under Section 77 of the Town And Country Planning Act that the application should be referred to him for determination".
However, MSG CEO James Dolan has confirmed that his company doesn't want or need the UK government to intervene on this. Because it’s already decided to abandon the London Sphere project and sell the land on which it would have been built. “It really is the end of the line for London”, he told the Evening Standard, before musing: “Why doesn’t London want the best show on earth?”
MSG wanted to build a big blob venue, like the one it recently opened in Las Vegas, right next to the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London. The Sphere venues come with lots of high-tech wizardry, including an LED skin with turns the entire building into a massive screen. The impact that would have on local residents was a key reason why MSG's plan proved controversial.
The planning authority that oversees developments in and around the Olympic Park, the London Legacy Development Corporation, initially approved the plan, but last week London Mayor Sadiq Khan overturned that decision.
Gove - in his current 87th ministerial incarnation as Secretary Of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities - issued a so called 'holding direction' in relation to the MSG Sphere proposal earlier this year, giving him the right to intervene.
At the time those campaigning against the building of the new venue hoped that that might provide another route to block the plans if Khan happened to approve them. It would be ironic if Gove now did the opposite. Though given MSG's current position, that seems unlikely.
