Man who climbed Las Vegas Sphere ahead of Super Bowl LVIII expects charges to be dropped despite $100,000 damage estimate

The man who climbed the Las Vegas Sphere prior to Super Bowl LVIII is confident that things are going to work out for him. In fact, he even expects the charges to be dropped despite causing $100,000 in damage to the Sphere.

Free-climber and activist Maison Des Champs, who has been called “Pro-Life Spiderman,” was arrested after he pulled a stunt the Wednesday before the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, where he climbed the Sphere.

Des Champs has a relatively large online following and has an Instagram bio that reads, “I climb Skyscrapers to raise money for women in crisis pregnancies. Christ is King!” However, it’s unclear if there was a purpose behind the stunt at the Las Vegas Sphere.

Local news caught him climbing the tower, and can be seen, here:

A person has climbed the Sphere. @KTNV pic.twitter.com/axoOARMDjt

— Jaewon Jung (@jaewonnews) February 7, 2024

Within the Las Vegas Sphere, an engineer noticed Des Champs scaling the structure. He then told his supervisors, who in turn got the police involved. They then made the decision to reach him through a porthole at the top where Des Champs was arrested.

Reportedly, as he was being arrested, Des Champs bragged that his attorneys were going to get the charges dropped.

For now, he’s still facing plenty of charges for the stunt. That includes destroying private property and conspiracy. He is set to appear in court next August.

The sphere isn’t designed to be touched and it certainly isn’t meant to be climbed. Because of that, Matthew German, the Sphere Vice President of Security and Threat Management, estimated that the damage Des Champs caused the Las Vegas Sphere will be at least $100,000. That’s because the outside of the building is made up of 1.2 million LED pucks that are holding lights. Those pucks are then on aluminum tracks that aren’t able to support human weight.

The timing of the stunt was, undoubtedly, related to the Super Bowl being in Las Vegas that week. With added attention on the city, and advertisements for the game being posted on the Sphere, targeting it seemed to make sense for a location.

Des Champs pulled a similar stunt last year, before the Super Bowl in Phoenix, climbing a tower there.

The Super Bowl itself got off to a slow start, with each team trading punts for much of the early stages of the game. However, late, it became a back and forth battle that went into overtime. There, after San Francisco added three points, Kansas City was able to go the distance and win the game with a touchdown pass from Patrick Mahomes to Mecole Hardman.