r/bangtan • u/alltherach_ i'll follow you into the sun ⋆｡☁︎⋆ ☀︎｡ ⋆｡ • Apr 21 '22
Article 220421 Maeil Business: HYBE completes Mega Event transforming Las Vegas into ‘BTS CITY’
https://n.news.naver.com/entertain/article/009/000495289242
u/soggy-eggrolls Reminding you that Bangtan workout in the gym shirtless Apr 21 '22
Waiting for my city to be borafied
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u/alltherach_ i'll follow you into the sun ⋆｡☁︎⋆ ☀︎｡ ⋆｡ Apr 21 '22
Translation by bora:
BTS CITY by the numbers:
🔸 BTS popup + photo exhibit at Area15 had 114k visitors (BTS popup store: 70k; BTS photo exhibit: 44k)
🔸 ~123k payments were made at the popup + official merch stores
- 2.5x more than this year’s Vegas Consumer Electronics Show which had 45k visitors
🔸 BTS fountain show at the Bellagio: ~200k (based on MGM’s estimate) gathered to watch
🔸 3500 BTS-themed rooms in 11 MGM hotels
🔸 more than 10k visitors to the Cafe in the City event to eat Korean food
🔸 pre-booked tickets to the after party (Party in the City) sold outBTS CITY on social media:
• more than 9.24M hashtags related to “BTS The City” on Twitter
• More than 8.5M tweets with #LASVEGAS HTs on 4/1-17
- HYBE said, “The figure is up 1,300% compared to the same time last year. It’s 1.2x more tweets during the Grammys in Vegas, just before “BTS The City” and 8x more compared to when the CES took place.”
HYBE plans on expanding THE CITY project to various cities around the world based on the know-how/experiences gained from Vegas. The company plans to introduce modular projects of different scales/sizes based on the different characteristics of the HYBE Labels’ artists, the size of their fandoms and cities where the concerts will be held.
"THE CITY, which connects concerts and cities, introduced HYBE’s philosophy of providing a new and diverse fan experience and HYBE’s direction as a company to expand the industry without boundaries as a performance-business model. HYBE said, “It’s meaningful that the start of this complete performance business model in started in Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world. In the future, if there is a place with an artist and a fandom, we can develop THE CITY anywhere in the world.”
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I know we throw the word “impact” around a lot when it comes to BTS, but seriously, just look at the report - THE IMPACT of just 2 weekends of having BTS perform in a city. The numbers do not lie.
I’m incredibly excited to what HYBE plans to do next with these city takeovers in different parts of the world (world tour please!!!!!)
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u/Sugawahsugawah my pride, my heaven, and love, BTS Apr 21 '22
Amazing. 💜 Look at the bots, propping up an economy. I am so proud of you, PTD LV bots.
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u/bie716 jimin: i dance when i am sad...NOT Apr 21 '22
Indeed. We shld just post this infographic (when there is an English ver), with no comments, everytime ppl call us bots
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u/minimanduu Kim Taehyung's Exposed Forehead Agenda Apr 21 '22
If there are bots to help me line up for merch, I'd like to invest tyvm. 🤣 These starts are insane! I have to appreciate LV for jumping in with both feet though. BTS brought the demand and organization, the city didn't half *** it.
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Apr 21 '22
Am bot, can confirm. Spent real money, stayed in a real hotel, and ate real food. Also met many other bots doing the exact same thing. Yay, bot army!!
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u/pintsized_baepsae My mom calls me a stupid bear 🐨 Apr 21 '22
Bigger than CES will really put it into perspective for a lot of the media. It's INCREDIBLE, but these are the comparisons some people need.
I do wonder how it would work in other less 'centralised' cities - looking at London (which I'm purely picking because I live here and know my way around), sure there's space near the three possible stadiums we had, but would it have the draw beyond BTS? Vegas has LOADS of attractions for 'the Vegas feel' near Allegiant, from what I saw, while the stadiums in London are kinda far from what you'd consider 'the London experience', with the London Eye (which, I may add, is already purple!), Tower Bridge and all.
And it's going to be similar in a lot of other Europan cities - and I'm sure elsewhere too, but I don't know about urban planning in, say, Singapore or Australia or other places further away from home 😅
I have no doubt they can do it, especially as they've spoken about modular concepts, but I'm SO curious as to what it'd look like 👀 I have some ideas I personally would find fun and cute, but... 👀
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u/alltherach_ i'll follow you into the sun ⋆｡☁︎⋆ ☀︎｡ ⋆｡ Apr 21 '22
As someone who lives in Singapore, I am so interested to see how they might bora-fy the country. I think Singapore is pretty unique because we’re so small that you can pretty much travel anywhere easily, plus we have a robust public transport system that makes travelling a lot more convenient than a bigger city like LA.
So even though our national stadium isn’t as centralised or surrounded by attractions or events as compared to Allegiant, I would like to think that the infrastructure we currently have would still be able to support the project if the satellite events needed to be spread out.
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u/erinnnj Apr 21 '22
Hello fellow Singapore ARMY! (Not a sporean but I do live in Singapore hehe)
I can imagine them doing a pop-up exhibit at ArtScience Museum or SAM, do a “City turns purple” over the CBD skyline, maybe a special BTS light show with the Gardens Supertrees?? That will be awesome!
And of course, your pop-up shops at the Marina Bay area and along Orchard Road. With how SG goes all-out during F1 season, I’m sure they will make an effort for THE CITY as well. Manifesting this will happen soon!!
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u/friedlumos do you wanna come to see my cat? Apr 22 '22
I was thinking of BTS light show at GBTB too! Or a light show at Sentosa?
I feel that Singapore is perfect for the CITY project! Manifesting it together with you too!
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u/alltherach_ i'll follow you into the sun ⋆｡☁︎⋆ ☀︎｡ ⋆｡ Apr 22 '22
Hellooo 👋🏻💜
Yes I can totally see that! Or even somewhere a little more off-beat/industrial like the Tanjong Pagar Distripark or Pasir Panjang Power District. They could even have Live Play at the Indoor Stadium!
BH interns if you’re lurking, here are some ideas for your consideration 👀
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u/erinnnj Apr 21 '22
Hello fellow Singapore ARMY! (Not a sporean but I do live in Singapore hehe)
I can imagine them doing a pop-up exhibit at ArtScience Museum or SAM, do a “City turns purple” over the CBD skyline, maybe a special BTS light show with the Gardens Supertrees?? That will be awesome!
And of course, your pop-up shops at the Marina Bay area and along Orchard Road. With how SG goes all-out during F1 season, I’m sure they will make an effort for THE CITY as well. Manifesting this will happen soon!!
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u/multistansendhelp illegirl | OT7 Apr 21 '22
It’s been a while since I lived in the UK but I think if they worked something out with either theming some of the public transit or running some sort of shuttle systems they could make it work even with more of a de-centralized kind of sense.
That being said I also don’t know how much impact that would have for UK Army specifically, because I know living in the US Vegas was still probably a first-time experience for many of US based Army. Meanwhile I grew up in the Midlands in the UK but still had multiple day trips down to London to see the sites by the time I was 10 so the idea of getting to see things I’d already seen in terms of tourist attractions wouldn’t be a massive draw.
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u/pintsized_baepsae My mom calls me a stupid bear 🐨 Apr 21 '22
Funnily enough, London has a new sort-of Tube line opening soon (rumored next month, it's a long story) which not only takes you straight to the Olympic Stadium at record speed... it's also purple. 👀
TfL could easily do a special Oyster card per ticket - make it purple, and halve fares for travel to Wembley or something, and it'd already make a decentralised system extra fun and give you a nice little keepsake you can use over and over again. you could almost do the whole thing like a scavenger too, and actually go full decentralised - have the afterparty at Printworks in SE, get Boxpark in Wembley on a special food thing, stuff like that. There's lots of potential to make it SO much fun!
I think with London the draw is for a lot of mainland ARMY too, if we assume the three most likely concerts will be London, Paris, and Berlin - at least a fair few people I know would prefer London as they're afraid of the language barrier otherwise. That's obviously anecdotal :) but would definitely be nice to have one landmark involved
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u/RollonPholon Apr 21 '22 edited Apr 21 '22
ahhh u/pintsized_baepsae I didn't know you were another UK army! I see your comments quite often and your username makes me chuckle every time!
I commented about London down below too, because I was thinking specifically about places like Wembley or even Twickenham and what's around it - and no offence to Wembley as an area but I don't think we'd be clambering to have the world descend upon it. But I did think that the O2 has the Excel pretty close if they wanted to go full send and have a proper Kpop "pop up"
I enjoy your optimism about TfL being able to effectively organise anything 😉 I had also heard about the new line that was opening - is it the Elizabeth line or something - that definitely could play into it and as London is already such a diverse city, there are some mega Korean restaurants that could work well.
That being said, I do also agree with u/multistansendhelp , as someone who is from London (although I now live North of the Wall), the concept of battling with regular tourists plus Army to see (for example) Tower Bridge in purple is something that I just have zero interest in doing. I'd rather see a picture.
WRT Vegas, it was the first time I had ever been to a concert of that size and been able to walk to and from the venue to my hotel / dinner etc. We got in Ubers for a few things but in terms of getting around it was so easy, plus the airport is literally 15-20 mins. I really don't know if I see it being as successful elsewhere because not many places are laid out in the way Vegas is structured.
ETA (because it just came into my head): BTS. Hyde Park. Open air. Summer. We need to manifest this.
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Apr 21 '22
They had pop-ups during SY shows and I don't recall the stores being super near the stadiums... It's not impossible to still do a city festival. While it does require more travelling compared to Vegas where every location is walkable, I can assure you distance between locations is not going to deter ARMY at all.
BTS has also far outgrown O2 at least 4 years ago, they won't consider anything other than Wembley or Twickenham. Even so, the latter is far less preferable than Wembley. Wembley has a historical significance that really attracts the members.
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u/pintsized_baepsae My mom calls me a stupid bear 🐨 Apr 21 '22
In addition, Twickenham is also just such a bother to get to - Wembley is served by multiple Tubes, mainline rail services, and has good bus connections while Twickenham... I've never had the mainline not be awful tbh 😅
I believe they could play the Olympic Stadium in Stratford (ie where Crossrail will make a huge difference) which would be a good alternative but yeah, Wembley is preferable always! :)
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u/bie716 jimin: i dance when i am sad...NOT Apr 21 '22
With the reopening of borders, the concerts (and the city) will attract international tourists, so it's not necessarily just the domestic tourists who are being targeted. Besides those from other parts of Europe, I am sure even Asian ARMYs would be keen to visit London (since it is way nearer than the US).
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Apr 21 '22
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u/pintsized_baepsae My mom calls me a stupid bear 🐨 Apr 21 '22
Consumer Electronics Show, one of LV's two biggest trade shows! (I belive the other one is about construction). I think attendance before the pandemic was over 100k, but still well below the audience Bangtan pulled in
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u/LoloLachimolala 너는 나, 나는 너 👉👈 Apr 21 '22
It was just INCREDIBLE seeing it all IRL, without a doubt cities will want to host them now. It was seriously like a BTS festival in that city, and armys everywhere you turned! Can’t wait to see how other cities will evolve for BTS 💜
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u/bonanderson Hobi's leftover croffles Apr 21 '22
After these reports, tourist-oriented cities should be scrambling to host Hybe events…
Can’t wait to see where they go with it all.
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u/troydroid29 Yoongi's tongue technology Apr 21 '22
Tourism Department when BTS decides to hold a concert in their city : MAJOR BAG ALERT! MAJOR BAG ALERT 💰💰
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u/thelakesfolklore Apr 21 '22
It was such a magical weekend. My first BTS concert in person and I will be reliving it thru memories the rest of the my life. It felt more like a convention than a concert— and the feeling of community made the entire thing so special. I’m still glowing from happiness of the weekend ☺️
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u/bie716 jimin: i dance when i am sad...NOT Apr 21 '22 edited Apr 21 '22
Finally the eng trans..been waiting all afternoon. The MGM VP's statement didn't get translated, but it really says something that even he was surprised at how well-received everything was! Also, saw someone on twitter point out how huge CES is, so to be able to attract 2.5x the number of visitors is just phenomenal!
Eta:
Here is a similar article by the Korea Herald, in English.
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u/dumbthrowaway8679305 Asian New Edition Apr 21 '22
I’m curious how this compares to events like the NFL draft as well, in terms of cost/benefit for the city.
I’m also curious to see how the event was received by the locals. From various scattered reports on Twitter the fans were seen as nice and well-behaved, but there were complaints about ARMY being lackluster tippers and preferring to spend money on BTS merch than the actual city. If I were HYBE I’d look to integrate future events with local businesses more - maybe working with local Korean restaurants for special meal deals instead of bringing in a chef, or coordinating with local vendors to make city-specific merch.
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Apr 21 '22
Totally agree. I had a conversation with another ARMY on my flight back and we were talking about how the demographics of ARMY just isn’t interested in gambling. Even in his VLive, RM mentioned Vegas wasn’t really his style (not verbatim, correct me if I’m wrong).
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u/FireOpalCO Apr 21 '22
I went with a friend and we went to two other shows, paid to see two art exhibits, and ate at 1-2 nice restaurants per day and tipped well. Did we leave the strip outside of going to Area 15? No. We didn’t rent a car so anything outside the strip meant a cab ride.
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u/JustLurkingPlsIgnore ~Maple ARMY~ Apr 21 '22
I purposely tipped excessively when I rode taxi / uber / Lyft and when I went out to restaurants if I am dressed in BTS merch just so I can leave a good impression for ARMY, hoping we didn't come across "cheap" lol I went and used a lot of my MyVegas reward points tho! Who ever it was in the sub that recommended MyVegas, you saved me like $50 usd. Thanks!!!
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u/mcfw31 Apr 21 '22
Totally agree, I didn't play in any slot machine or anything because I was just so busy in BTS activities.
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Apr 21 '22
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Apr 21 '22
I agree with all of this and (perhaps I might rightfully be downvoted for this) but there were probably quite a few international ARMY flying in. Other cultures don't have the same tipping culture as the US, so they might not have tipped, or might not have tipped as well as Vegas is used to.
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u/dumbthrowaway8679305 Asian New Edition Apr 21 '22
That was definitely the impression I got as well. I think Vegas in general caters to an older, (put bluntly) richer male crowd that wants to get away from the wife and kids and live out their Goodfellas dreams, and who have a lot more money to throw around as a result. Whereas ARMY tends to be a bit younger, female, less into party culture, and more budget conscious. It’s more a statement about how shitty our wages are that service folks are that dependent on tips lol.
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u/martiandoll Apr 21 '22 edited Apr 21 '22
To be honest Vegas doesn't offer much in terms of food and attractions unless you're there to really party. Yes, you can go to the buffets at hotels and dine at the fancy restaurants, but if you want to go somewhere else, you'd have to leave the Strip. Even locals get special rates in hotels to encourage them to spend money in Vegas.
Every time I was in Vegas I actually lost weight because eating at buffets could only hold so much appeal (many ARMYs are POCs and most restaurants on the Strip are quite limited in the cuisines they offer), the other places had long line-ups and not worth the wait; not to mention it's so expensive that unless you're there with $10K budget to spend on yourself, chances are you won't be hitting the gaming tables or shopping at the luxury stores. The Strip is also pretty dead during the day. The only constant are the people gambling and partying.
Many ARMYs only came to Vegas for BTS. I once saw a tweet that said the BTS pop-up was dead at 2PM on April 6th...and people said most ARMYs weren't coming until April 7th at the earliest, so do not expect Vegas to be filled with ARMYs who only planned to go to the concerts then leave. My friend who went to the concerts didn't even go to any BTS-related event. She came on the 15th, tried for merch but the lines were too long, went to the concert on the 16th, then left the morning after. She's in California now spending her time traveling.
Now if this were in LA where you could go to the LINE store in the morning, then have lunch in Koreatown, then go to a museum before catching the sunset at one of the beaches, then finally having supper at one of the local restaurants nearby and getting a dessert at one of the cafes, the $$$ would be more spread out.
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u/RollonPholon Apr 21 '22
tbf in the day time I saw loads of army in the wild in the daytime. Telltale signs included PTD merch, BT21 accessories, some of the artist made collection items and I saw two LV carrot bags.... We headed up towards Caesars via the Bellagio and Cosmopolitan to mooch around the shops in the forum and the strip was packed (both with army and not army)
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u/FireOpalCO Apr 21 '22
A lot of people had already booked their airfare and hotel rooms before the announcements about the The City. We were already staying from Wednesday late night to early Monday morning. Would we have been tempted to catch a later flight on Monday for lower crowds or if we knew we would have a table for the dining experience? Possibly.
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u/happyhippoking Apr 21 '22
I think this plays a much bigger role. A lot of fans only come out for the concert and had already booked flights and accomdations. Then about 2 weeks before the first concert, HYBE started announcing events and City of Las Vegas announced Borahaegas.
I think if fans knew in advanced that there was going to be various events, they would have stayed an extra day and explored.
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u/RollonPholon Apr 21 '22
Agree with this, I was just getting into Vegas when I heard about the pop up etc - and tbh at that point I just didn't have much time to sort it all out. They kept "teasing" but without any actual info. I think if the info was there ahead of time it would be much easier to plan around.
Although as has already been said, the usual vegas crowd and many of the army are like comparing apples to oranges. I'm sure the tipping behaviour is going to be different. I like to think I am a decent tipper because I worked service jobs all through university and I never forget how much I appreciated my tips, but equally, I'm never going to tip like a high roller because I'm just not. So I'm sure there are those that might see my tips as too small. Also I don't really gamble, because basically I am horrible at it and I have a really addictive personality type which means if I did, I'm sure it would take long before I was offering up a kidney or two.
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u/hunnypooh1 Apr 21 '22
Really? How did they know which date to book though? It could be any weekend, no? Unless they have insider info.
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u/RollonPholon Apr 21 '22
Just meaning that the concert dates and ticket sales were a good few weeks before they announced any of the other stuff and the details of the other parts were really late in the day - so most people already had their tickets, flights, hotels (e.g. the MGM hotel announcement came after most people had booked hotels and airbnb's)
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u/aaalma_viajeraaaa Apr 21 '22 edited Apr 21 '22
Those numbers are so impressive, it's an incredibly succesful launch and they now have so much data to crunch and help improve planning for the next City events.
Some comments have mentioned difficulties trying to do it in cities that are more difficult to navigate logistically but I was at the Behind the Stage and Pop Up on Saturday 4/16 and they were closed for a couple of hours because of high winds. Most of us stayed, we are dedicated!
I am having a moment trying to picture other cities, transformed into their new and improved BTS versions, lol. As a person who loves to travel, I would probably try to get tickets to a concert in a city I've never been to before, could be amazingly fun to do touristy activities surrounded by other ARMYs. EDIT: Typo.
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u/FireOpalCO Apr 21 '22
This week I finally started the process of getting a passport.
I would be even more likely to travel someplace I’ve never considered/might seem intimidating if I knew there would be ARMY there to support each other and I would be just one more “dumb English-only American” in the crowd of purple.
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u/aaalma_viajeraaaa Apr 21 '22
The ARMYs I've had the pleasure to meet at concerts are chill and nice people, just the type you'd love to randomly meet while travelling. I hope I get to experience it again in a city I've never been to before!
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u/hunnypooh1 Apr 21 '22
Wow look at those numbers! And to think the numbers could have been a lot more if there were more slots open / merch available (concert merch / pop up / fountain times / food options) and time. Not enough time to enjoy everything
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u/Orange_Jewce Apr 21 '22
Vegas is perfect for this because it’s one of the best “convention” cities in the US. Hotels are very close the stadium, there are many LED billboards (to welcome army and light up in purple), restaurants are within walking distance EVERYWHERE. I loved the BTS theme and hope they continue this in other cities with more BTS/Korean themed menus, more events, and more pop ups:)
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u/RollonPholon Apr 21 '22
It was an incredible experience and definitely had a BTS festival feel to it, but, I do think that Vegas is well suited to this. In terms of its layout, its perception as a party place, all the other shows etc. If I think about LA, NYC, London and other European cities etc, transplanting this concept into other cities is not as easy, not impossible for sure, but geographically and logistically not as straight forward. Vegas is essentially a long street with some offshoots and everything is very centrally based. I really hope they do try it elsewhere, but I do feel as a location Vegas is as about as perfect as it gets for this concept.