I am just asking for some substance behind the "Disney conspiracy" claim.
Proof...that's not easy considering that the people with direct knowledge of the situation are not willing to speak publically about it. Hence, I can't point to John Doe, VP of DTD and quote him on the subject.
All I can do is state with all honesty, that in conversations with multiple people who are employed both at DTD and TDO, I have been given substantial information regarding the situation.
Therefore, I can state with some certanity the following:
-Pleasure Island was very popular and profitable for the first decade plus of it's existence, and
never reached the point of being a bad business decision.
-The island was opened to foot traffic a few years ago to increase guest flow between east and west sides. This required a restructuring of the pricing for entry to all the clubs. The result of this was that the clubs that were doing well, and the ones that were not, were now easily identified.
-At some point in the recent past, the interest of dance clubs waned, leaving the main draws at PI as the AC and CW, which both continued to thrive. Fewer guests going to the dance clubs meant less profit in those clubs, making them ripe for conversion to third-party businesses.
-Since the opeining of the island to foot traffic, there was indeed an uncomfortable situation where families with children wandered into the middle of an adult-oriented location. This was a result of the removal of the gates, and Disney found themselves with a problem - try to prevent kids from going into that area or replacing the gates and making guests walk around PI. They never came up with a workable solution.
-The decision was made by Disney to close the dance clubs, and make the spaces available for third-parties to come in and open their own operations.
This was purely a financial decision. Those clubs, while popular, were expensive to run. Burbank's current mindset of "make money at all costs" led to the decision to try to fill the spaces with third-party operations who would pay very high rent to be at DTD.
No restrictions at all were placed on the types of businesses that were allowed. (In other words, there was no intention to focus on only family-friendly locations.)
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There was never an intention to try to cater more to the family crowd, as they feel that they are doing that already, all across the property.
-The original plan was to keep CW and AC as stand alone clubs, since they were both capable of running well and making a profit on their own merits. The decision to close them as well came fairly late in the process, and was purely a result of management deciding it was a better move to just turn over the whole island to third-parties.
-When these decisions were finally made, surveys were taken of guests. These surveys were designed to achieve a desired result, one that would justify the decision to close the island. None of the surveys asked if the guests liked the PI clubs. None of them asked if the guests thought Disney should pull the clubs in favor of more family oriented locations. The surveys only asked if guests would like to see more shopping and dining locations at DTD. Naturally, the guests said "Sure", without knowing that their response would used to justify the closing of the clubs. No question existed that said anything like "Should Disney close the PI clubs to make room for more shopping and dining, or should they keep the clubs and just add the other stuff." Too many guests would choose to have both, so that question was never asked.
-Since the closure last year, there has been a tremendous lack of interest on the part of the potential third-party operators. Hence the area turning into a ghost town. The current occupants are not happy with the situation, and some are encouraging management to reopen some clubs to increase traffic to the island.
-It is now seen in many circles as a bad move to close the whole island at once, though there were some accounting advantages to doing it that way. If it were done over, they would only close locations that had signed leases from third-parties, be they stores, restaurants, bars or clubs. AC and CW would still be open.
Ok...fingers are tired of typing. Once and for all...the closure of PI was purely motivated by the idea of making an easy profit from third-party operators. It had nothing to do with making it more family friendly, or a "bold, new vision" that would result in a makeover into anything else than what it now is.
None of this is my opinion. None of this is the result of my personal feelings one way or the other. This is not subjective, it is how things are.
The world is not flat, no matter how much some here would like to convince others that it is based purely on their own opinion and personal tastes.
Now then...:snore: