Disneyland Sets Sights on Huge Park Expansion
Disneyland has preliminary plans to add up to four themed areas on 30 undeveloped acres inside the Magic Kingdom, setting the stage for what could become the most aggressive expansion drive in the park’s 31-year history.
Walt Disney Co. is also studying plans to build a second separate admission park on a 40-acre site that the company owns north of the Anaheim park, top Disney officials said in interviews.
Disney’s senior managers differ over the best use for the empty--yet very valuable--parcel. But senior executives have made it clear that the property will not sit idle for another 31 years. “The land cries out for something to be there,” said Frank Wells, president of Burbank-based Walt Disney Co.
Although Wells was reluctant to discuss specifics, industry sources familiar with the plans said the additions could cost more than $1 billion and take two decades to complete.
Among the many options being considered is a smaller-scale facility molded after the popular Epcot theme park in Orlando, Fla., said Richard Nunis, president of Walt Disney Attractions, the operating arm of all Disney theme parks. The proposed expansion at Disneyland comes on the heels of key corporate changes at a company that, at middle age, appears to have found a new, youthful vigor.
Just two years ago, Disneyland was a theme park that seemed prepared to live off its past. Now, however, officials are talking about vastly increasing the park’s size and spinning the innovation wheels into overdrive.
When new leadership stepped into Disney’s top spots in September, 1984, the theme parks received plenty of attention.
This, despite the fact that the experience of both new leaders--Chairman Michael D. Eisner, former Paramount Pictures Corp. president, and Wells, a former Warner Bros. vice chairman--was in studio lots. Wells has shouldered the primary task of overseeing theme park development. “There is no greater centerpiece to our company than our theme parks,” said Wells. “They are, in many respects--along with the animated classics--what Disney means.”
While Disneyland, at 70 acres, at first appears to be built to capacity, that is hardly the case. There is empty acreage inside and outside the park, and executives eventually plan to move much of the so-called backstage area--including storage and maintenance facilities--outside the park gates.
To make room for future expansion, Disneyland plans to move its corporate offices off the park grounds in Anaheim to a site recently purchased near the park, Nunis added. A backstage area east of Tomorrowland eventually will be the site of a newly themed area that will likely include a second Main Street, said Nunis. That street, which would have a turn-of-the-century theme, has tentatively been labeled Edison Square.
Even the newest attraction at the park, a live animal petting farm called Big Thunder Ranch, is temporary, Nunis said. It, too, will eventually be replaced by a glitzy themed area.
Because Disneyland’s expansion proposals are all preliminary, officials would reveal few specifics about them, including possible timetables and estimated costs.
Resurgence of Interest
“There is a resurgence of interest in Disneyland,” said Nunis. “This is the Rembrandt of the amusement parks and we intend to keep it that way.”
The picture that Disney officials paint of the future Disneyland is that of a vastly changed amusement park. Costly iron and steel rides will give way to super-high-tech attractions dependent on illusions created with sophisticated computer software. When the public gets bored with an attraction, instead of knocking down a multimillion-dollar attraction, Disneyland can simply replace the software.
“Disneyland has to be something far beyond Peter Pan and Pinocchio,” said Jim Harmon, a partner at Management Resources, a Tustin-based leisure industry consulting firm. “People who go there expect to find state-of-the-art entertainment.”
Industry executives and consultants expect that Disney’s new management team will use the company’s other divisions--television, motion pictures and consumer products--to better market the theme parks. “The thing that is so impressive about Disney is that it has a built-in vehicle to reach consumers in huge numbers,” said Harmon.
Under new management, Disney has taken a hush-hush approach to new projects--until they are signed and sealed. The company only reluctantly agreed to talk to The Times about preliminary expansion plans. The new, more circumspect attitude is largely a reaction to increased competition in the leisure time industry--especially in Southern California. The company is also trying to avoid disappointing the public. Officials have discovered that early announcements of projects build up public expections that are often never met. An announcement last year that the park was planning a new themed area--to be called Discovery Bay--aroused public interest, but no action was taken on those plans.
The park is also months late in the opening of the splashy, $15-million Michael Jackson video attraction, Captain Eo. Similarly, Star Tours, a multimillion-dollar simulated spaceflight attraction to be developed by Star Wars director George Lucas, will not open until January--months later than expected.
“When you talk about blue-sky dreams, people think it will be here tomorrow,” said Nunis.
But Disneyland is talking--and talking loudly--about the things it does have. For years, it relied mostly on free publicity to remind the public that the rides were still whirling. But now, the park has turned more toward advertising and promotions in a bid to increase attendance. It has increased its advertising budget 40% over the past two years, said Jack Lindquist, Disney’s vice president of marketing. Disneyland recently opened a marketing office in San Francisco and plans to open one in Seattle later this summer.
Disney officials realize, however, that the only way for Disneyland to significantly increase its attendance is to also increase the size--and scope--of the theme park.
For an entire decade, between 1971 and 1981, much of the theme park division’s creative and financial resources went into developing the $900-million Epcot. With that completed, officials have refocused on upgrading the original park, although they have also paid attention to Tokyo Disneyland and the European Disneyland planned for France.
In a bid to open up more space inside Disneyland, last year Disney purchased the 60,000 square-foot Global Van Lines building behind the park. A few months ago, Global vacated the building. Disneyland plans to eventually move its administrative offices to the site, but no date has been set, Nunis said.
Expanding Its Markets
Disney’s planned growth, however, is more than physical. It is also expanding its markets. The park has added a series of new programs aimed at attracting the teen-age and corporate crowds during off-peak hours.
Last year, the park built a $3-million teen nightclub, Videopolis, which has helped boost evening business. As a vote of confidence for the splashy hang-out, pop star Michael Jackson has been spotted more than once at the club.
Then, last month, Disneyland truly came of age--drinking age, that is. The park announced plans to rent individual themed areas to businesses that want to host off-season, weeknight parties at Disneyland after regular park hours. The park will reverse a 31-year-old policy, and serve beer and wine on the park grounds during these corporate gigs.
“If that ever gets to be a problem, we’ll eliminate it,” Nunis said.
The jury is still out on the marketing of occasional booze in the Magic Kingdom. But Disney executives are still toasting a 2-year-old marketing scheme that features a prize giveaway at the park’s front gate. Executives regard it as one of the most successful marketing moves in Disneyland’s history. Since it began, the park has given away more than 500 General Motors cars and other prizes totaling more than $20 million. But officials plan to end that promotion Sept. 6, just two weeks before the Michael Jackson video is scheduled to premiere. “If you keep doing something for too long, it gets old,” Lindquist said.
Promotions such as the prize giveaway have helped Disneyland conceal its most critical deficiency over the past half-decade--the park has not added a major, new ride since 1979, when Big Thunder Mountain was built at a cost of $15 million. Today, such a thrill ride “would cost more than the original Disneyland,” said Nunis. Disneyland was originally built for $17 million.
Corporate Sponsors
To help defray high costs in the future, Disneyland’s major attractions will all have corporate sponsors, Nunis said. He said that he expects to add a major new attraction every two or three years at Disneyland.
Captain Eo marks the beginning of a new wave of sophisticated software attractions at the park. When Captain Eo loses its appeal--perhaps in two or three years--Disney officials can create a whole new attraction by simply changing the software. “We won’t have to spend all our money on bricks and mortar,” said Nunis.
This still affords the park the opportunity to bring back the same Michael Jackson video 10 years from now--at minimal cost--as a nostalgia show, said Lindquist.
But that nostalgia is a long time off. The Michael Jackson video is scheduled to be introduced Sept. 19 as part of a live NBC television special. Although Jackson is scheduled to appear on the television special, he is not expected to show up at Disneyland or Disney World, which are simultaneously premiering the video.
In celebration of the new video, which will incorporate 3-D theater and laser lights, Disney plans to operate the two theme parks a record 60 consecutive hours between Sept. 19 and Sept. 21.
Less than four months later, on Jan. 8--which is typically the beginning of Disneyland’s slowest season--the park plans to introduce the Star Tours attraction. The space ride simulator, Nunis said, “will be to Disneyland what the introduction of the Matterhorn was in 1969.” A prototype of the attraction is still being tested at the company’s “imagineering” facility in Glendale.
For years, Disney officials have negotiated on and off with the Wrather Corp.-owned Disneyland Hotel, for some sort of joint venture on adjoining land owned by the two companies. A project conceivably would involve more hotels or a sprawling shopping area. “Nobody knows what they want to do with the acreage around here,” said Michael Bullis, president of the Disneyland Hotel, “but a joint project will eventually happen.”
As Disneyland grows, its competitors may grow more envious.
“It’s enough to drive you nuts,” said a spokesman for one competing tourist attraction. “Every time Mickey Mouse makes an appearance somewhere he’s on the front page.”
Nearby Knott’s Berry Farm, the Buena Park amusement park, is working hard to stay competitive. The park added a live dolphin show this year and is featuring Olympic champion ice skaters in its summer entertainment line-up. “Disney seems to be much more aggressive,” said Stuart Zanville, Knott’s director of public relations. “They’re making us work harder to redefine our niche in the marketplace.”
