Sports-Themed Park Not in Disney’s Plans

As Disney unwrapped the renovated Edison Field last year, the marketing campaign included this slogan: “There’s a Brand New Theme Park in Anaheim.”

Could Disney apply that slogan to a new amusement park with a sports theme? For a company that already operates the Angels and Mighty Ducks in Anaheim and that last year secured enough land for a third theme park in the city, a sports-themed park would appear to be a mighty interesting idea.

“It certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing to think about,” Disney Chairman Michael Eisner said. “But I don’t want you to interpret from that that we are thinking about it right now. We’re not. We’re concentrating on Disney’s California Adventure.”

Disney’s California Adventure, under construction adjacent to Disneyland, is scheduled to open in 2001. An aquatic theme park in Tokyo, DisneySea, also is scheduled to open in 2001, and the company plans to defer new theme park developments until then.

Disney told financial analysts the company would consider building a sports-related theme park in Orlando, where the company operates five parks and has room for three more, the Orlando Sentinel reported last year. In Anaheim, the company last year acquired an option to buy farmland along Harbor Boulevard, providing for the first time enough land for Disney to consider a third theme park in the city.