Business

The Future of Cirque du Soleil Isn’t the Circus

The New Age big-top machine is expanding into markets like the NFL and a theme park in Mexico, with the backing of private equity firm TPG.

Visitors to the NFL Experience in New York get a player’s-eye view of the game.

Photographer: Yael Malka for Bloomberg Businessweek

In the past three decades, Canada’s Cirque du Soleil has reimagined the notion of a circus by crafting visually arresting aerial extravaganzas that are a world away from P.T. Barnum’s brassy Greatest Show on Earth. Yet at the new Cirque-designed NFL Experience in New York’s Times Square, the closest thing to acrobatics comes from the onscreen football players that audiences witness up close as they’re immersed in the game through a combination of video, sound, moving seats, and even smells.

Many visitors may remember the 11-minute multisensory film “ride” as the highlight of this four-story permanent paean to all things gridiron, slated to open on Nov. 30. But for the 33-year-old Cirque, the joint venture with the National Football League is a chance to showcase how the creative minds behind its trademark shows can be harnessed for different formats as it expands into new markets with the backing of private equity firm TPG Capital LP.