Having just viewed Brickey's video released today, I better understand why TSI closed (of course I'm still not happy about it). To summarize, a (the?) major reason why Disneyland's Tomorrowland remains in its sorry state of its 1998 reskin of the 1967 rebuild is because of the 1967 infrastructure tunnels that exist underneath Tomorrowland--and only Tomorrowland. After watching, I realized every single major expansion of Florida's Magic Kingdom has been beyond the perimeter of the Utilidors: most recently TRON, but before that New Fantasyland over the former footprints of 20,000 Leagues and Mickey's Toontown Fair--neither of which were built over the Utilidors. As much earthmoving as they will need for the TSI replacements, it's no comparison to a revamping of a Utilidor. I'm good friends with an engineer who participated in a major maintenance project of the Utilidors several years ago, and his discussion of its details made me realize any significant revamp of the Utilidors would be prohibitively difficult at best. Hence the recent loss of one of the least-trafficked ground-level attractions at Magic Kingdom. That being said, even if not for decades, I'd argue that next major attraction on the chopping block would be the Speedway. Once Cars opens, it will decrease the Speedway's appeal even further than it's already experienced, it has the biggest attraction footprint, Tomorrowland could still use some extra love, but, most-importantly, it's not over any Utilidors. I realize many of you may have realized this already. At least now I do too. Maybe it's also why the EPCOT hub redo is largely a disappointment--they kept those tunnels intact from everything I've read and seen.
oh well.
