NBA Experience at Disney Springs

NoChesterHester

NoChesterHester

Well-Known Member
Hawkeye_2018 said:
Why would Disney care how attendance is? They still get paid rent regardless.

I'm almost certain this 'experience' was never meant to make money. It's a basically an interactive billboard for their product, which they can easily afford. It's in a great area where they can hold special events that will highly attended because of the surrounding area.
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1. Disney doesn’t want bad press of things, especially big things, failing in it’s $100 MM mall.

2. “Collecting rent“ is not really how retail leasing or development works. In any leasehold improvement Disney has to co-invest with the tenant to build out the space in return for the high rent they are asking for. This is called a tenant improvement allowance. It’s basically a big lump sum of money Disney gives to the tenant. The rent helps finance the construction over many years. So, if the business goes under before the expiration of the term Disney will have lost money on the venture.

3. I would venture almost every business at Disney Springs pays a percentage bonus to Disney if profits are over a certain metric. This is pretty standard in the industry. Disney was probably building this into their expectations as well, especially with a brand like the NBA.
 
The_Jobu

The_Jobu

Well-Known Member
tin foil hat: A lot of Disney vloggers had videos at this place in the last few days, with comped tickets. Disney/NBA trying to get good publicity out ahead of the curve?
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
The_Jobu said:
tin foil hat: A lot of Disney vloggers had videos at this place in the last few days, with comped tickets. Disney/NBA trying to get good publicity out ahead of the curve?
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That's not tin foil hat at all. By all reports attendance is down. Leveraging free social media is a no-brainer for anyone in marketing. They're also comping all CMs in the hopes it won't seem dead and they can talk about it intelligently with guests.
 
LSLS

LSLS

Well-Known Member
The_Jobu said:
I wonder if the international politics really are impacting attendance or if this is just its median level of interest.
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I'd guess the latter. I know the NBA is big in China, but I'm not sure how many of the NBA fans from China actually make a trip to WDW considering they have their own parks and I believe WDW is the furthest away park.
 
The_Jobu

The_Jobu

Well-Known Member
LSLS said:
I'd guess the latter. I know the NBA is big in China, but I'm not sure how many of the NBA fans from China actually make a trip to WDW considering they have their own parks and I believe WDW is the furthest away park.
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True, but there are Americans on this thread that were upset with the NBA's endorsement. Maybe they are staying away?

Then again, I can't think of a single time where a public "boycott" against a company actually worked.
 
Hawkeye_2018

Hawkeye_2018

Well-Known Member
The NBA is mostly ignored by the casual sports fan up until around February through June. I imagine interest will pick up for visiting the Experience during those months.
 
DznyGrlSD

DznyGrlSD

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
they're trying SO hard to make this work. We were wasting time before I had to go to the airport last week and got stopped by the survey takers going into the Lime garage. They asked the usual questions about springs but then asked specifically if we were A: NBA fans (no) and visited the NBA experience - nope!
 
Disstevefan1

Disstevefan1

Well-Known Member
The NBA experience will not last.

I wounder how it works?
The NBA (or whoever) is the tenant, Disney is the landlord.
I suspect the tenant paid for all the renovations?
I also suspect there is a multi year lease?
I suspect there was a large non refundable deposit made by the tenant at the beginning?

I suspect there is NO risk whatsoever for Disney. When this fails, Disney just gets a new tenant for the space.
 
L

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
Disstevefan1 said:
The NBA experience will not last.

I wounder how it works?
The NBA (or whoever) is the tenant, Disney is the landlord.
I suspect the tenant paid for all the renovations?
I also suspect there is a multi year lease?
I suspect there was a large non refundable deposit made by the tenant at the beginning?

I suspect there is NO risk whatsoever for Disney. When this fails, Disney just gets a new tenant for the space.
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Iger even showed up for the Grand Opening for NBA which is highly unusual. He usually shows up when there is a grand opening for a theme park not even for a new land or resort.
 
peter11435

peter11435

Well-Known Member
Disstevefan1 said:
The NBA experience will not last.

I wounder how it works?
The NBA (or whoever) is the tenant, Disney is the landlord.
I suspect the tenant paid for all the renovations?
I also suspect there is a multi year lease?
I suspect there was a large non refundable deposit made by the tenant at the beginning?

I suspect there is NO risk whatsoever for Disney. When this fails, Disney just gets a new tenant for the space.
Click to expand...
The NBA experience is Disney owned and operated.
 
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Frank the Tank

Frank the Tank

Well-Known Member
n2hifi said:
Doesn't Iger love sports and hate theme parks? That may be why.
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When you look at the amount that ESPN spends in rights fees with the NBA, from a financial perspective, the NBA is one of the largest third party partners for the entire Walt Disney Company. This is definitely a top 10 (and maybe top 5) third party alliance relationship for Iger (or anyone that is in the position of Disney CEO). The performance of the NBA is inextricably intertwined with the performance of ESPN and, even with cord cutting and the successes of the Disney movie properties, the profits that ESPN generates still are larger than anything else in TWDC. (We can have a whole other discussion about the math of the revenue that ESPN generates each month, but let's just say that it's on par with releasing an Avengers movie every single month without having to market it and the checks just come in like clockwork. A lot of people really don't understand how much ESPN and other top sports networks generate compared to virtually everything else.)

At the same time, I'd highly disagree with the people that would argue that the NBA fan demographic doesn't match up with WDW demographic (or at least where Disney wants that demo to go to). The NBA has *great* demographics that virtually every company everywhere is going after: younger, higher income, more urban, more international, more diverse, more technologically-savvy, etc. It's also the American sports league that, even with its issues in China, has the widest international appeal a critical mass of fans in Asia, Europe and Latin America. That's key for WDW, which draws a more international crowd than other parks (which is also why it arguably fits in better than, say, the NFL, which is much more popular in America but has cursory interest elsewhere).

Of course, that's all on paper in terms of demographics and the audience. If the attraction itself isn't compelling, then slapping an NBA label on it won't do any good (just as slapping a Star Wars or Marvel label on a low quality product won't do any good, either).
 
L

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
In regards to NBA fans, the majority of fans are white and the majority of players are black. If the NBA can have some sort of marketing plan to get more of the black population in the stands then that would a win win for all.
 

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