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A Second Sphere Is Coming to America: Maryland Approves the $1.4 Billion National Harbor Venue

Published

3 days ago

November 12, 2026

The Sphere in Las Vegas. Photo by Nigel Hoult, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0).

The glowing orb that rewired the Las Vegas skyline is officially getting an East Coast sibling. On October 27, the Prince George’s County Council voted 8 to 0 to approve the financing package for Sphere at National Harbor, a $1.4 billion entertainment venue planned for the Potomac River waterfront in Maryland.

The Maryland Sphere will be the first smaller-scale version of the format: about 6,000 seats, against roughly 17,600 at the Las Vegas original, which opened on September 29, 2023. Smaller does not mean stripped down. The venue is planned with the same signature technology, including a 16K by 16K interior LED display, an exterior LED exosphere, spatial audio, haptic seating and 4D environmental effects, on a site next to MGM National Harbor in Oxon Hill, about 15 minutes from downtown Washington, D.C.

The county’s vote authorizes up to $215 million in special obligation bonds to support the project, which Sphere Entertainment is developing with Peterson Companies. The package includes $130 million in tax increment financing bonds, a $40 million county-owned parking garage and $13.5 million in state funding, with Sphere Entertainment covering the roughly $1.2 billion balance.

Construction is expected to begin in 2027, with an opening targeted for early 2030. If the timeline holds, National Harbor will be the third Sphere on the planet: a full-scale, 20,000-seat venue in Abu Dhabi is expected to be completed in 2029. The message from the company is clear. The Sphere is no longer a one-off Las Vegas spectacle. It is a format, and it is on its way to the world.

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Wawa Spreads Its Wings to Nashville: First Music City Store Opens November 19 in a Nearly 100-Store Year

Published

3 days ago

November 12, 2026

We Speak Media

A Wawa food market in Williamsburg, Virginia. Photo by Aaron F. Stone, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Ask anyone from Philadelphia what a Wawa run means and you will get a speech. Now Nashville is about to find out. The Pennsylvania-based convenience chain opens its first store in Music City on November 19, its sixth location in Tennessee and one of close to 100 openings on its 2026 calendar.

“We are excited to spread our wings to Nashville with our first store in the city and sixth location in Tennessee,” Wawa president Brian Schaller said ahead of the opening. The store, on Highway 100, follows a Tennessee debut in Clarksville in June and openings in Dickson, Murfreesboro, Lebanon and Manchester. A second Murfreesboro store is due by the end of the year, giving the state up to seven new Wawas in 2026 alone.

Tennessee is one front in a much bigger push. Wawa plans more than 50 Tennessee stores over the next decade, an investment of at least $375 million in that state alone, and it spends about $7.5 million building each location. Since launching its expansion drive, the chain has debuted in eight states: Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, West Virginia and North Carolina. Indiana, which got its first Wawa in May 2025 and its 16th this October, is slated for more than 70.

The chain now counts more than 1,100 stores across 14 states and Washington, D.C., and South Carolina could be next: a proposed store in Little River, near Myrtle Beach, won a planning commission vote on November 5, though final county approval is still pending. For a company that spent decades as a regional secret, the map is changing fast.