Originally Posted by KingEric
Before I say anything a disclaimer... these are memories of conversations and other such with some people about PI back in 2004 - 2008... so if I have missed a point, or misrepresented a decision that was made please feel free to correct me.
Back in 2004 PI was showing it's age. The powers that were directly in charge of PI at the time (some really great people) wanted PI to be a bit more fluid and be able to transition and turn over more often than Disney was willing to invest.
The big complaints being the Mannaquins, 8 Traxx, Rock N' Roll Beach Club, BET and Motions should constantly be changing. What they wanted to do, was take some of the great night time talent that they had pretty much put out of business from downtown Orlando, and Pointe Orlando and allow them to operate clubs at Downtown Disney. Giving them the audience that they want, giving Disney the high rent that they want, and giving the guest a fresh and constantly changing/fresh experience. (There was a time that Mannaquins was voted the best night club in the south eastern united states).
So that being said, in order to do this and attract these big players they had to make PI an open area, not a hard ticket. So out went the turn styles, out went the west end state, things were beginning to really take shape at the time when they tore out the west end stage.
Then some people moved on, and some philosophies began to change. Then with PI not being a hard ticket, and the big crusader for this change no longer in Florida, the vision really changed from let's change this experience to OMG we are loosing so much money, we need to dump these venue asap.
So the plan was drafted to get 3rd parties like planned before, but make them restaurants/clubs ala CityWalk, and just be done with it. So they closed PI, the economy crashed, and there was no one there to redevelop like they had hoped... there was no longer that great vision.
So because the mentality had changed and the goal had now been to dump the venues, and get really any 3rd party in there, we have what we have today... a ghost town.
Again if I have misrepresented a decision please correct me, but this is my point of view of the situation, from the information that I have been privy to.