Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
Well, they are a company and if they have a way to make extra money from it, they would be fools to not take advantage of it. But to go back to the original EPCOT Ctr., the early 80's were a different time, with different outlooks. The internet, if it did exist, wasn't common place, people didn't have cell phones or giant screen TV's. It was, indeed, a worthwhile investment because there was no other place, with a captive audience that gave them more exposure then EPCOT did or MK or whatever you care to name in the high traffic theme park business.It's truly a joke they even get sponsors involved, in my honest opinion. They just aren't needed...Disney is too strong to need any money, input, or influence for an outside source. It's just a cheaper model...
As time and communications evolved (who knows, maybe partially because of EPCOT exposure) they no longer saw it as a decent return on investment. The same thing applies to World Showcase. World's Fair existed because countries saw them as a way to get people to know about their cultures, their products and their hospitality in an effort to lure people to, at least, visit them or if nothing else to brag a little. Disney seemed to go out of its way to downsize the attractions in an pursuit of lower costs and maybe being able to keep the "helping hand" of outside financing in place. It didn't work and I don't think that they have adjusted completely to that yet.
Of course, it was a self fulfilling action. When you downgrade, you lose your prime audience and revenue drops and so on and so on. Also when it started, Disney was not as wealthy and powerful as it is today. They just haven't been able to justify spending the extra money yet. They also have kept up hope that companies would still jump at the chance to have a connection to Disney. Hope that they do figure it out soon. And the need is in both directions. Companies do not benefit from that investment and Disney sees no reason to pump more money into something that will not show a huge increase in people. (i.e. money)