A new kind of sports dome

Got my first taste of watching NBA basketball on one of Cosm's monstrous immersive dome screens and it certainly left a lasting impression

No Joel Embiid.

No Paul George.

No one in Philadelphia would dare follow up with the proverbial No problem that you reflexively want to tack on when you read or hear that sort of sentence construction. Not after the 76ers slumped to a 124-109 defeat to Doc Rivers-coached Milwaukee in their season opener without two-thirds of their Big Three.

Spoiled Me, by contrast, had a much more enjoyable Opening Night experience than the short-handed Sixers. I was invited Wednesday to watch the Bucks' season-starting triumph in Philly at the new Cosm Dome in suburban Dallas.

It's a 65,000-square-foot facility in the heart of the booming Grandscape development in The Colony and houses an 87-foot LED dome that delivers a fan experience termed "Shared Reality." It's way too fancy to be called a sports bar — or even a sports bar on steroids — and currently features college football, Premier League football, NHL, UFC and, of course, our beloved NBA among its sports offerings.

I've been deeply curious to check it out, especially given how my longtime local media colleague Ben Rogers has been hyping it up, and must say that even Skeptical Me came away from the evening fairly wowed.

Entry on a Wednesday night, for just the second NBA game Cosm Dallas has ever screened, ranged from free (for access to the building and various standing-room-only bar spaces inside as opposed to coveted dome seats) to $130. Rest assured it gets pricier on the weekends and games in higher demand.

Yet a crowd of roughly 300 showed up after an estimated 600 attended Tuesday night's Lakers/Timberwolves opener — both shy of 1,500-customer capacity but turnouts that surprised me in both cases considering the newness of the place and the out-of-market teams playing.

The premise is that Cosm can deliver a courtside experience — through the technology of its C360 immersive video cameras that transmitted Bucks at 76ers in roughly 8.5K according to Cosm Dallas GM Justin Renville — at a far more affordable price than courtside seats at an NBA game ... with multiple menus pitching high-end food and drinks and wait staff everywhere to augment this shared reality. (There will eventually be concerts, Cirque du Soleil performances and more beyond sports.)

It's a legitimate palace. It is supposed to feel cosmic and might make you think you're on a spaceship. There is obviously still nothing in life like being at a game in person, particularly when you are there to watch your team, but this is indeed a memorable experience unto itself. Example: Cosm aired a couple Premier League highlights after Bucks/Sixers and I can honestly say — after attending matches in person in England for nearly 30 years — that I have never felt more like I was in an actual stadium in the UK than I felt watching the two goals replayed on that reel. Even watching old goals, I felt like I was in the actual crowd. It legit struck me as the closest thing to being there as any venue in the States can provide.

I was comped two $80 tickets on the second of three levels in the dome and found it to be the ideal level to spectate. The dome screen frankly might be too much to take in when you're sitting at floor level, but my vantage point was tremendous.

DLLS Sports' Texas Rangers reporter/social media ace Abby Jones joined me to ensure that at least one of the two ticket-holders in Booth 5A had some actual photography skills. Here are some standout aspects of the viewing experience with video and/or photos attached:

🏀 The angles are frequently switched by operators inside the venue. The cameras at the arena are Cosm's … with the sound of the national TV broadcast synced to the game action. From certain angles you feel like you are watching from Jack Nicholson-esque proximity. Then the view flips and you almost feel as though you're part of Rivers' huddle during a timeout. Or that you're right under the hoop when Giannis Antetokounmpo is barreling toward the rim. "I just ducked because I thought Giannis was about to collide with us," Abby said after one such drive. The pregame warmups vibe:

🏀 It can be a struggle to track the score at times because you have to find it on one of the smaller screens nearby carrying the actual TV feed. The same holds for replays since the main screen is meant to replicate being there. That said … Damian Lillard walking the ball up the floor from seemingly inches away had me mesmerized. This is how that looked:

🏀 During one timeout, Embiid was handling the ball, itching to get a shot or two up and so far out onto the floor that he was visiting with referees. Of course Idiot Me managed to delete the best picture I had from that genre rather than saving it, but here is a glimpse of Embiid that dome-goers had while ESPN was running commercials:

🏀 When Kyle Lowry and Bobby Portis were jawing at each late in the third quarter with Lowry at the free throw line, we were closer to the exchange than I can even describe. Of course, me being Old Man Me, I tried to lip-read (and predictably failed at that) rather than busting out my phone to get a shot of the back-and-forth. To make up for this fail, I have enclosed a photo from Red Panda's halftime performance … which also wouldn't have aired on a standard TV broadcast:

🏀 This summary reel provided by Cosm from Tuesday night's Lakers/Wolves showing in the dome should help you get a further sense of how close its various vantage points bring you … with a glimpse of the floor seats I mentioned that were one level lower (and more expensive) than our seats:

🏀 I wasn't super hungry (for once) so only had a few bites of a nachos plate and some ceviche. But the food I tried was solid and, from what I can gather, has gotten good reviews. It's far fancier food than arena/ballpark fare, but that's clearly what they're going for in a building, again, meant to convey a cosmic aesthetic.

🏀 The Dallas venue has been open for just shy of six weeks. There is a Cosm dome in Los Angeles as well near SoFi Stadium and the new Intuit Dome in Inglewood and another on the way in Atlanta. They aired some US Open tennis in September at our location that I badly wish now that I could have checked out after seeing this picture in The Dallas Observer:

Some are bound to find the Cosm realm too expensive to leave the house for … or too luxury-minded to embrace … or too scarce given that there are only two locations currently open. We're also living a time, mind you, when general parking at the Clippers' official Intuit Dome debut Wednesday night was $70 alone courtesy of this tweet from my pal Arash Markazi. So an $80 expenditure for the ticket I was gifted doesn't seem so outlandish.

The equipment Cosm uses to screen games in this manner stems from technology designed for planetariums and amusement parks. The result is a new brand of immersive sports viewing that I imagine will appeal to many consumers who can't just drop everything to fly to London to watch the best soccer in the world … or get anywhere near a courtside seat back home … or even find a way to Las Vegas to check out Sin City's famed Sphere.

Word is that the place has been packed on weekends for college football — this is Texas after all — and I can't wait to go back Nov. 23 with The Stein Line's official photo editor Aaron Stein to see City host Steve Nash's Tottenham. Like I said: That small glimpse of footy I got at night's end has me wondering if Cosm is an even better venue for soccer than hoop … which isn't necessarily bad news as the 2026 World Cup draws near.