http://orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/orl-asec-extreme072801.story
Extreme sports may add edge to Disney image
By Robert W. Johnson | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted July 28, 2001
Will Walt Disney World’s Wide World of Sports complex go to the extreme?
Plans are being finalized to bring Orlando a sprawling extreme-sports school and practice facility where pro stunt performers using skateboards, in-line skates and bicycles would tutor students ages 7 to 17.
The kids would attend weeklong "camps" in the summer and weekend classes at other times of the year, said a source who is highly placed among those planning the proposed venture’s details.
The new venue, tentatively named "X Games Camps/The Woodward Experience," likely would cost more than $40 million to build, sources say.
A spokeswoman at Disney’s ESPN, which broadcasts extreme-sports competitions, confirmed Friday that an announcement about plans for the camp could come soon.
"We are awaiting final approvals for the camp," Amy Lupo said. "If the camp is approved, groundbreaking could begin as early as this fall, with the camp to open in 2002 or early 2003."
For Disney, the extreme-sports expansion aims at important strategies: Appealing to the preteen and teenage market that is turned off by the company’s tame image, stretching the Disney brand into new areas and improving the flagging performance of Wide World of Sports, which the company has said isn’t profitable.
What’s more, the camp would allow tourists visiting the area’s theme parks to enroll their teens and preteens while accompanying younger ones on more traditional activities.
The details are still sketchy, but the attraction would probably stretch over an area of 100 to 200 acres between the Wide World of Sports complex and the All-Star Resorts and employ about 300 people, sources say.
Camp in California
In addition, Disney officials are studying blueprints for a sister facility in the Mammoth Mountain area of California that would teach snowboarding in the winter and offer summer extreme sports during warm weather, sources said.
Extreme sports earn their name from their element of daring and danger: The athletes, on skateboards, in-line skates and bicycles, compete at stunts in which they get rolling starts to jump 20 feet or more high and turn somersaults or other tricks in midair. Many scorn helmets and protective padding -- although Woodward mandates such gear -- and broken bones yield bragging rights.
There are roughly 20 million extreme-sports participants in the United States who represent a growing market of more than $5 billion annually, said Jim Fitzpatrick, executive director of the International Association of Skateboard Companies. Two networks, including Disney’s ESPN, broadcast extreme-sports competitions that award millions of dollars in prize money.
The proposed extreme-sports camps would be the first step resulting from an agreement last August between Camp Woodward and Disney’s ESPN, says a person involved in the Wide World of Sports planning. Both new camps would likely become the sites of competitions and stunt demonstrations that would air on ESPN.
Gary Ream, a partner at Woodward Camp, declined to comment about the prospects for camps in Orlando and California.
To extreme-sports enthusiasts, the proposed facility would come with a pedigree: It would be modeled after and managed by the partnership that owns Woodward Camp in rural Pennsylvania about 150 miles east of Pittsburgh. Woodward owns a second, though much smaller, extreme-sports camp in rural Wisconsin.
The original Woodward in Pennsylvania has a 14-week summer season that attracts about 700 students a week at fees of $725 apiece, which includes meals and boarding in cabins similar to those at Disney World’s Fort Wilderness campgrounds. Campers pay extra for such activities as horseback riding and go-carts.
Success in Pennsylvania
Woodward’s main attraction is as an extreme-sports mecca.
The Pennsylvania camp opened a new $500,000 skate park this summer called "The Rock" that covers an area the size of a football field. The concrete structure is designed to mimic the very streets that skateboarding kids are so often chased from by police -- right down to the ornate street lamps and steps of public buildings.
Skateboarder Tony Hawk, a Madison avenue icon featured in the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine -- and whose endorsements have brought him more than $1 million a year -- says he occasionally trains at Woodward in Pennsylvania.
"They have the best equipment, and every year they improve and add to it," he said.
Hawk’s only complaint about Woodward: "It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere."
The proposed Walt Disney World location would provide a popular Sun Belt alternative.
"The Orlando market can become a destination for aspiring extreme-sports athletes all over the nation," said Steve Van Doren, vice president of promotions for Van’s Inc., the Santa Fe Springs, Calif.-based chain that owns 140 U.S. stores that sell clothing and equipment for skateboarders, in-liners and stunt cyclists.
Van’s has previously announced plans to open an Orlando store and commercial skate park -- where extreme-sports enthusiasts pay to play on assorted ramps, some more than 10 feet high.
The proposed Van’s location is at the Mall at Millenia near Interstate 4 and Conroy-Windermere Road.
There are still sticking points in the talks about an Orlando Woodward. One is how much campers will be charged. Company planners generally agree that if Woodward -- which would manage the camp under terms of the joint venture -- keeps the weekly fee at the $725 charged in Pennsylvania, little would be left after expenses for Disney’s bottom line.
Some planners say keeping the fee under $1,000 a week is a psychologically important marketing goal. The Orlando Woodward would also offer getaway weekend packages to extreme-sports athletes and their parents at lower prices than the full-week camp.
Extreme sports would fit the strategy of diverse offerings by Disney’s Wide World of Sports, which opened in 1997 and hosts everything from Atlanta Braves spring-training games to tae kwon do tournaments.
Disney is appealing a $240 million judgment against it in federal court last year that the company stole the idea for the complex from two businessmen. During that trial, the company said Wide World of Sports is losing money
Extreme sports may add edge to Disney image
By Robert W. Johnson | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted July 28, 2001
Will Walt Disney World’s Wide World of Sports complex go to the extreme?
Plans are being finalized to bring Orlando a sprawling extreme-sports school and practice facility where pro stunt performers using skateboards, in-line skates and bicycles would tutor students ages 7 to 17.
The kids would attend weeklong "camps" in the summer and weekend classes at other times of the year, said a source who is highly placed among those planning the proposed venture’s details.
The new venue, tentatively named "X Games Camps/The Woodward Experience," likely would cost more than $40 million to build, sources say.
A spokeswoman at Disney’s ESPN, which broadcasts extreme-sports competitions, confirmed Friday that an announcement about plans for the camp could come soon.
"We are awaiting final approvals for the camp," Amy Lupo said. "If the camp is approved, groundbreaking could begin as early as this fall, with the camp to open in 2002 or early 2003."
For Disney, the extreme-sports expansion aims at important strategies: Appealing to the preteen and teenage market that is turned off by the company’s tame image, stretching the Disney brand into new areas and improving the flagging performance of Wide World of Sports, which the company has said isn’t profitable.
What’s more, the camp would allow tourists visiting the area’s theme parks to enroll their teens and preteens while accompanying younger ones on more traditional activities.
The details are still sketchy, but the attraction would probably stretch over an area of 100 to 200 acres between the Wide World of Sports complex and the All-Star Resorts and employ about 300 people, sources say.
Camp in California
In addition, Disney officials are studying blueprints for a sister facility in the Mammoth Mountain area of California that would teach snowboarding in the winter and offer summer extreme sports during warm weather, sources said.
Extreme sports earn their name from their element of daring and danger: The athletes, on skateboards, in-line skates and bicycles, compete at stunts in which they get rolling starts to jump 20 feet or more high and turn somersaults or other tricks in midair. Many scorn helmets and protective padding -- although Woodward mandates such gear -- and broken bones yield bragging rights.
There are roughly 20 million extreme-sports participants in the United States who represent a growing market of more than $5 billion annually, said Jim Fitzpatrick, executive director of the International Association of Skateboard Companies. Two networks, including Disney’s ESPN, broadcast extreme-sports competitions that award millions of dollars in prize money.
The proposed extreme-sports camps would be the first step resulting from an agreement last August between Camp Woodward and Disney’s ESPN, says a person involved in the Wide World of Sports planning. Both new camps would likely become the sites of competitions and stunt demonstrations that would air on ESPN.
Gary Ream, a partner at Woodward Camp, declined to comment about the prospects for camps in Orlando and California.
To extreme-sports enthusiasts, the proposed facility would come with a pedigree: It would be modeled after and managed by the partnership that owns Woodward Camp in rural Pennsylvania about 150 miles east of Pittsburgh. Woodward owns a second, though much smaller, extreme-sports camp in rural Wisconsin.
The original Woodward in Pennsylvania has a 14-week summer season that attracts about 700 students a week at fees of $725 apiece, which includes meals and boarding in cabins similar to those at Disney World’s Fort Wilderness campgrounds. Campers pay extra for such activities as horseback riding and go-carts.
Success in Pennsylvania
Woodward’s main attraction is as an extreme-sports mecca.
The Pennsylvania camp opened a new $500,000 skate park this summer called "The Rock" that covers an area the size of a football field. The concrete structure is designed to mimic the very streets that skateboarding kids are so often chased from by police -- right down to the ornate street lamps and steps of public buildings.
Skateboarder Tony Hawk, a Madison avenue icon featured in the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine -- and whose endorsements have brought him more than $1 million a year -- says he occasionally trains at Woodward in Pennsylvania.
"They have the best equipment, and every year they improve and add to it," he said.
Hawk’s only complaint about Woodward: "It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere."
The proposed Walt Disney World location would provide a popular Sun Belt alternative.
"The Orlando market can become a destination for aspiring extreme-sports athletes all over the nation," said Steve Van Doren, vice president of promotions for Van’s Inc., the Santa Fe Springs, Calif.-based chain that owns 140 U.S. stores that sell clothing and equipment for skateboarders, in-liners and stunt cyclists.
Van’s has previously announced plans to open an Orlando store and commercial skate park -- where extreme-sports enthusiasts pay to play on assorted ramps, some more than 10 feet high.
The proposed Van’s location is at the Mall at Millenia near Interstate 4 and Conroy-Windermere Road.
There are still sticking points in the talks about an Orlando Woodward. One is how much campers will be charged. Company planners generally agree that if Woodward -- which would manage the camp under terms of the joint venture -- keeps the weekly fee at the $725 charged in Pennsylvania, little would be left after expenses for Disney’s bottom line.
Some planners say keeping the fee under $1,000 a week is a psychologically important marketing goal. The Orlando Woodward would also offer getaway weekend packages to extreme-sports athletes and their parents at lower prices than the full-week camp.
Extreme sports would fit the strategy of diverse offerings by Disney’s Wide World of Sports, which opened in 1997 and hosts everything from Atlanta Braves spring-training games to tae kwon do tournaments.
Disney is appealing a $240 million judgment against it in federal court last year that the company stole the idea for the complex from two businessmen. During that trial, the company said Wide World of Sports is losing money