HERE is a good news story to inspire activists working for a better world in 2025.

Concluding last year, it is the story of a small group of campaigners defeating a multinational corporation that had the backing of the mayor of London and the British government.

The corporation in question is the US-based Madison Square Garden Entertainment Company (MSG), which announced in February 2018 that it wanted to build the MSG Sphere in Stratford, east London, on 4.7 acres of land they had purchased for a cool £72 million.

In March 2019, MSG submitted the official 3,000-page application for the huge entertainment venue to the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC), the planning authority established in 2012 to turbocharge development on the site of the Summer Olympics held the same year.

The Sphere would have a 21,500 capacity, and at 90 metres high and 120m across would be as tall as Big Ben and as wide as the London Eye. Moreover, the whole of the building’s external skin would be made up of LED lights, allowing video and adverts to be broadcast all day every day, up until late in the evening.

As mayor of London, Sadiq Khan was set to make the final decision on MSG’s planning application after receiving a recommendation from LLCC. However, approval already seemed a sure thing: Khan released a statement in February 2018 in support of the Sphere, which was included in MSG’s publicity material: “It’s great to welcome another world-class venue to the capital, to confirm London’s position as a music powerhouse and to boost still further our city’s thriving night-time economy.”

Matt Hancock, then secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, was similarly effusive at the time: “It’s great news that the world-famous Madison Square Garden Company has chosen London to be home for its first international venue.”

While MSG London executive vice-president Jayne McGivern described the Sphere as “a joyous ball of magic,” many local residents were less enamoured by what some dubbed “the glowing bollock.” In response to MSG’s application, a small number of concerned citizens set up the grassroots Stop MSG Sphere group in 2018.

With hundreds of homes within 100 metres of the venue, opponents highlighted the extraordinary light pollution the Sphere would emit. In addition, they pointed to its impact on the already overcrowded Stratford station, the likely negative influence of such large-scale adverts and the increased air pollution the construction and operation of the venue would bring.

Organising meetings took place in pubs, church rooms and people’s houses. A website, social media accounts and a WhatsApp group were set up. There was leafleting outside Stratford station, door-knocking sessions to raise awareness among local residents, and outreach to other campaign groups, councillors, political parties and journalists.

The vast planning application documents were carefully parsed, presentations given at planning committee meetings and letters written to the press. (Point of information: I played a minor supporting role in the campaign).

Though they faced off against MSG’s professional PR team, and were only powered by “tea and biscuits,” as they quipped in a letter to the Times newspaper, Stop MSG Sphere were incredibly effective, generating several key moments in the campaign.

First, there was the public consultation. Freedom of information requests submitted by campaigners show DP9 Ltd, the planning consultancy acting for MSG, wanted to minimise the public consultation period.

Yet, as the Observer newspaper noted, while the decision on whether to approve the Sphere was supposed to have been reached by the end of 2020, the consultation period was extended three times “amid concerns about its impact on the area.”

And when the public consultation meetings actually happened, campaigners were able to force a change to the format. For example, LLDC’s preferred format for the January 2020 consultation event was an informal drop-in session but after pressure from campaigners, it became a public meeting.

Having attended two of these meetings, I can confirm they were raucous and somewhat unruly and would have left LLDC, MSG and anyone else who attended under no illusions about the depth of local anger about the Sphere.

Second, after emails to some journalists, criticisms of the Sphere started to receive good media coverage, especially in the Newham Recorder newspaper.

In November 2019 a front-page report by Hannah Somerville, based on a freedom of information request made by a campaigner, revealed senior figures in LLDC were helping MSG with a PR campaign in support of the planning application, and also discussing strategies on how to deal with “local resistance.”

Other Newham Recorder articles highlighted how McGivern was on the board of LLDC from 2012-16, and how Newham’s Chamber of Commerce, which strongly supported the Sphere, had received a £2,000 donation from MSG for an awards ceremony. Many of the eye-opening disclosures published in the Newham Recorder were then reported in national newspaper articles.

Third, until the campaign got going very few local politicians and political parties had made public statements about the Sphere. Only one Newham councillor (Anamul Islam) attended the June 2019 public consultation meeting, according to the Newham Recorder. This soon changed, with Stop MSG Sphere London organising a petition against MSG’s plans. By late June 2019, a third of Newham’s councillors had signed in support.

Fourth, Nate Higgins and Danny Keeling from the Green Party, elected in 2022 as local councillors to represent the ward where the Sphere was to be built, played a crucial role in the campaign. Higgins was an especially strong media performer.

It’s important to note, however, that it was the Stop MSG Sphere group who approached Higgins and Keeling, not the other way around. There was a feeling within the group that the soon-to-be Green councillors did not initially rush to get involved because they didn’t feel the Sphere was a big concern for local residents.

More broadly, the three Green members on the London Assembly, no doubt encouraged by Higgins and Keeling, also spoke out against the Sphere. Chaired by the Green Party’s Zack Polanski, the London Assembly environment committee’s May 2023 report into light pollution in London recommended the mayor of London reject the MSG’s proposal to build the Sphere.

Following all the hard work done by the campaigners, Newham Council repeatedly rejected the application to build the Sphere, and Newham Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz sent a letter to Khan opposing the development.

Local Labour Party MP Lyn Brown was also opposed, as were the surrounding borough councils of Hackney and Greenwich. After initially welcoming the Sphere, Unmesh Desai, the Labour London Assembly member for City and East, soon switched to opposing the development.

Nevertheless, there was a big setback in March 2022 when LLDC’s planning decisions committee voted to approve MSG’s application. The vote was 6-4, with the Stop MSG Sphere group noting the votes against were all from elected councillors on the committee, and the votes supporting the Sphere were from unelected members, who made up the majority of the committee.

Undeterred, the campaign continued. Then, in November 2023, the big news dropped: Sadiq Khan U-turned and rejected the Sphere. The huge structure “would result in an unacceptable negative impact on local residents,” the London mayor noted, citing concerns about “light intrusion” and the environmental sustainability of operating the mammoth LED display.

Frustratingly, within weeks the Tory government had “called in” the application so it could be reviewed by ministers, with opponents of the Sphere unclear about their motives and position on the Sphere.

No matter. In January 2024 MSG, clearly frustrated by the long fight to get permission to build their “glowing bollock,” withdrew their application.

Finally, after more than five years of struggle and uncertainty, the battle was won.

“It really is the end of the line for London,” bleated MSG chief executive James Dolan. “Why doesn’t London want the best show on Earth?”

Of course, many factors are involved in the outcome of a planning application as large, unprecedented and controversial as the MSG Sphere, including borough, London and national politics, corporate jostling (the owners of the O2 Arena just down the road were strongly opposed) and economic considerations.

But the evidence seems clear: the shift in the positions of Newham councillors, Desai and the mayor of London, as well as the British government’s silence after their initial endorsement, strongly suggests the heroes of the Stop MSG Sphere group played a decisive role in the defeat of the multinational giant.

People power 1, corporate power 0.

Follow Ian on X @IanJSinclair.