A Spirited Valentine ...

[BrianLo]

Disney did not own Marvel in May 2008. I specifically remember the purchase (which I still don't understand 7 years later.) happened in late 2009

I'm talking about Iron Man's release. Marvel became popular on the back of the cinematic universe. Not the Disney purchase. Disney just bought the train as it was leaving the station.

The purchase has more than paid for itself, become a key pillar of their tent pole strategy, helped Disney diversify their gender appeal, fits with the companies history of animation, drives Iger's IP mandate, came with some very strong talent and further promotes the Disney dominance of the toy aisle. Most importantly kept the bulk away from its competitors.

You certainly don't have to like the reasons, but it's easy to understand the motivation behind it.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

The castle re-do is the part of the HK project I'm most looking forward to. HK's castle is diminutive and unimpressive in its current setting. For those in charge to have the vision and will to do something about that is extremely encouraging. It will communicate the park's re-birth and entice the Chinese, who like "bigger, taller, better".

Just saw this as I posted the local media's coverage of the deal. I can't disagree with you more.

The park was built using DL and its scale originally. The copying of SBC was much like MSUSA. It fit. This is akin to what the new Hub does at the MK. It doesn't fit the scale and art direction of the area.

Taking the existing castle (which won't be bulldozed, maybe a mystic can explain the details in full to those confused spirits) and adding ... well, a large and weird addition that exists only to enlarge the look of the structure isn't a great idea. It looks bad in the art. It will look worse in the real world. It won't fit at all.

It's not wise to indulge such phal... design comparisons on these terms. The size of the castle is just a stand in for the perception that HKDL is a small park and Shanghai's sprawling layout doesn't help. A taller castle isn't going to fix that. Actually, that taller castle will make the rest of the park, beyond FL, seem smaller because of the scale issue Spirit mentioned. It's just bad design that doesn't look deeper. Because if you consider HKDL's size problem with care, then the role of the "lap band" railroad track becomes evident. Just pushing the HKDL RR out to its intended final location at the edge of the park would make the park seem larger because the perceived borders of the park have grown.

And yes, it would still be doable if they wanted to do it with Autopia going away and Primeval World and the Grand Canyon Diorama style passthrough attractions could be used to shield guests from the show buildings along the park's southern border.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

There's no "theme park wars." Universal owns a minority stake with Amblin, which is Spielberg's production company. Consequently they also have a first-look deal on his films and distribute most of them (ET, Jurassic Park, etc). As part of this, they also retain rights to market products based on these properties, in addition to theme park attractions. So no, no wars, just a very very lucrative deal for all involved.

Spielberg is a creative advisor to the UNI parks and is paid 1-2% of all revenues generated by them.

 

[King Panda 77]

Personally, I think sports are just another thing that divides people, pits them against each other and distracts them from their real problems. Just the modern day equivalent of Roman Gladiator matches and probably would be best to leave in the dustbin of history.

Or maybe sports help develop teamwork and competion. Or should every snowflake juat get a participation medal.

 

[ford91exploder]

Personally, I think sports are just another thing that divides people, pits them against each other and distracts them from their real problems. Just the modern day equivalent of Roman Gladiator matches and probably would be best to leave in the dustbin of history.

The interesting thing is that PLAYING team sports is good for kids and teaches valuable life lessons.

Yet modern sports MARKETING does indeed bring the aura of gladatorial games to most team sports in the US

A deemphasis on professional sports would i think be a good thing from a cultural standpoint

 

[King Panda 77]

The interesting thing is that PLAYING team sports is good for kids and teaches valuable life lessons.

Yet modern sports MARKETING does indeed bring the aura of gladatorial games to most team sports in the US

A deemphasis on professional sports would i think be a good thing from a cultural standpoint

 

[ford91exploder]

View attachment 202905

Quite serious

 

[Mike S]

Spielberg is a creative advisor to the UNI parks and is paid 1-2% of all revenues generated by them.

I think that only applies to Orlando.

 

[RandySavage]

A taller castle isn't going to fix that. Actually, that taller castle will make the rest of the park, beyond FL, seem smaller because of the scale issue Spirit mentioned. It's just bad design that doesn't look deeper.

Scale shouldn't be mistaken for Size or Height. Scale is the relationship between the sizes of different architectural elements. I.e., if you took the exact same castle (SB) and enlarged it by 150%, then, yes, you'd have scale issues and the larger size wouldn't be an improvement. But if you subbed in the taller, slenderer Paris Castle, "scale" would be unchanged and you'd have a more soaring, elegant, impressive centerpiece.

You often see disharmonious scale when a new home gets built in a historic district, where modern differences in things like floor height and window size show the mismatch. In this case, those mistakes will hopefully be avoided.

The castle in the art looks to be significantly taller than Paris', but scale isn't an issue unless elements like the turrets, windows or portculis were enlarged without thought to how they fit the building or land standards (e.g. 2x bigger). Size-wise, I don't think it will overwhelm the park or surrounding areas in a negative way (castles are supposed to be large, dominant and impressive). In front of those hills, the current SB looks like a quaint little manor house, versus an eye-popping fairytale castle.

 

[JoeCamel]

I think that only applies to Orlando.

2% of orlando tickets, cut of concession sales in orlando and a cut of USJ gross in return for Universal getting first dibs on the movies he makes and he is listed as a consultant to the company. What a deal!

 

[csmat99]

Or...and follow me here...you have a documented hatred of both sports and the management of TWDC, so this is just creating the perfect storm for you to pontificate endless with literally the same talking points. Everyone one of your post reference on the same handful of items:

• ESPN overpaid, in your opinion, for broadcast rights (THEY DIDN'T EVEN GET A SUPERBOWL!)
• ESPN is losing subscribers monthly. Depending on how much coffee you've had it's anywhere between 200k and 600k
• ESPN could be drop from 70-80% of cable packages (which you repeatedly gleefully report that the Weather Channel is more popular, despite the fact that everyone is affect by weather not so much by sports.)
• ESPN will be bankrupt or sold off in x amount of time (x being a variable that is constantly changing) and, if you're feeling really plucky, will also take down all of TWDC

Live sports isn't going to be a "much smaller business". The only person who would think that is someone, like you, that has an overwhelming disdain for sports.

Sport is definitely becoming more specialized. ESPN isn't a one stop shop for sports any more. I don't watch ESPN for MLB. I watch the MLB Network. You know when I do watch ESPN? When they are showing an MLB game. ESPN needs to get back to live sports and less talking heads.

You are just making the same points over and over, literally for years. You might be right in some aspects because the landscape is changing and Disney doesn't have a good track record with IT, but considering how wrong you are almost all the time with everything else you post, I think the majority of us will just wait and see and not need a paper bag to breathe into whenever ESPN news is announced.

I disagree with you. Sports is going to shrink especially football. Goodell has really over saturated the market with these Thursday games that no one likes or wants. The younger generation doesn't care about sports as much. They want real life experiences not just watching rich people play a game. And ESPN biggest problem is not cable. Their biggest problem is they are a slow moving dinosaur that never truly embraced how people want to get their information. And ESPN is in big danger of losing live events because twitter and amazon and verizon will try and get contracts to stream the games. I never watch ESPN anymore unless it's an NBA basketball playoff game or Monday night football and I turn off the sound because can't stand to listen to their people. They change their website all the time and somehow make it worse each time. Making it harder to find the information you want and not the garbage they try and shove down your throat about S Smith latest hot take.

 

[xdan0920]

They want real life experiences not just watching rich people play a game.

Elaborate please.

 

[csmat99]

Elaborate please.

They travel, they are active in their community. They much rather catch up on what is going on by looking at their phone then sitting watching tv and the 5 o'clock news. They are unattached and show no loyalty to brands. They don't accept "well this is always the way we have done it" motto. So no they aren't going to a football game because their father did and their granddad. My kids are at the age where I have seen this with them and their friends. I have seen it with co-workers. I have seen it when i travel. They want what they want when they want it. Why streaming, and uber and tinder took off the way they did.

 

[HMF]

They want real life experiences not just watching rich people play a game. .

and receiving Brain Damage that none of their easily affordable healthcare can fix.

 

[xdan0920]

They travel, they are active in their community. They much rather catch up on what is going on by looking at their phone then sitting watching tv and the 5 o'clock news. They are unattached and show no loyalty to brands. They don't accept "well this is always the way we have done it" motto. So no they aren't going to a football game because their father did and their granddad. My kids are at the age where I have seen this with them and their friends. I have seen it with co-workers. I have seen it when i travel. They want what they want when they want it. Why streaming, and uber and tinder took off the way they did.

I don't understand how this relates to sports. Kids don't like watching sports anymore? They would rather do something real. That's what you said. I still don't see what you meant.

 

[csmat99]

I had a big reply all typed out and decided to delete it because it's just not worth discussing if you're involved. ESPN has problems. ESPN will eventually solve them. Luckily, the other business units at TWDC are doing well enough to "float" ESPN through for at least a few years. By then, I'm sure they will have new deals that will allow them to be more nimble.

Still, you seem to be operating under the delusion that ESPN would be able to obtain rights to stream live events all over the country. Nobody has those rights, not even the franchises or leagues within each sport have those abilities. ESPN pioneered live sports, especially over the internet with stuff like college networks and ESPN 3. They're simply hamstrung by all of the garbage deals that leagues are holding them to. Those deals will be renegotiated at some point.

ESPN is not going to solve them the way they are going. Those layoffs were a joke. For example Ed Werner one of the most respected people covering the NFL, one of the few people they I will actually watched when he had a story because had 30 years worth of sources was let go. Because ESPN figures they can hire some 25 year old blonde out of college and her first stint covering some FLA college football team for way less money and no one will care. The other thing I'm sure that has been brought up is they laid off people that just signed 5 year contracts and now are paying them NOT to work for 5 years. Why because under tax rules they can save money on taxes by showing it as severance. ESPN is dying and unless it gets sold or they clean out upper management there will be nothing to save it.

 

[xdan0920]

and receiving Brain Damage that none of their easily affordable healthcare can fix.

You get brain damage from watching sports?

 

[csmat99]

I don't understand how this relates to sports. Kids don't like watching sports anymore? They would rather do something real. That's what you said. I still don't see what you meant.

They aren't watching sports. Have you seen the ratings? Have you seen how attendance has gone down and NFL playoff games were going to be blacked out unless tickets were bought up by local TV stations? My point is you need to deliver media in a way they want it. If they do watch sports they don't want to be forced to watch it on cable and have a package. They just want to be able to stream it on their ipad or Samsung TV.

 

[jakeman]

I disagree with you. Sports is going to shrink especially football. Goodell has really over saturated the market with these Thursday games that no one likes or wants. The younger generation doesn't care about sports as much. They want real life experiences not just watching rich people play a game. And ESPN biggest problem is not cable. Their biggest problem is they are a slow moving dinosaur that never truly embraced how people want to get their information. And ESPN is in big danger of losing live events because twitter and amazon and verizon will try and get contracts to stream the games. I never watch ESPN anymore unless it's an NBA basketball playoff game or Monday night football and I turn off the sound because can't stand to listen to their people. They change their website all the time and somehow make it worse each time. Making it harder to find the information you want and not the garbage they try and shove down your throat about S Smith latest hot take.

Nah, you're agreeing with me. You said you never watch ESPN anymore unless there is a sporting event you're interested in. I said that ESPN needs to get back to sports programming not talking heads. That's the same thing. We agree. Sports isn't going to shrink it's just going to reconfigure.

Elaborate please.

Soccer. They want to watch soccer.

They travel, they are active in their community. They much rather catch up on what is going on by looking at their phone then sitting watching tv and the 5 o'clock news. They are unattached and show no loyalty to brands. They don't accept "well this is always the way we have done it" motto. So no they aren't going to a football game because their father did and their granddad. My kids are at the age where I have seen this with them and their friends. I have seen it with co-workers. I have seen it when i travel. They want what they want when they want it. Why streaming, and uber and tinder took off the way they did.

That doesn't have anything to do with sports. You just describe a typical jackhole millennial. I should know, I have one about to come home from college in a week and you know what we're going to do? Go to a baseball game. So I guess my anecdotal data negated yours?

and receiving Brain Damage that none of their easily affordable healthcare can fix.

They aren't watching sports. Have you seen the ratings? Have you seen how attendance has gone down and NFL playoff games were going to be blacked out unless tickets were bought up by local TV stations? My point is you need to deliver media in a way they want it. If they do watch sports they don't want to be forced to watch it on cable and have a package. They just want to be able to stream it on their ipad or Samsung TV.

You guys know there are more sports balls out there besides the football right?

 

[rael ramone]

ESPN is letting go of quality reporters that are on the books and may very well stay on the books (decreasing the value of the product offered) to appease The Street (specifically, the short term 'stockrenters' - not the long term holders).

Parallels can be made to how $DIS has operated WDW....