No More ESPN Weekends

[Crush Dude!]

Lou Mongello just Posted this on Twitter!

Anyone heard anything?

 

[Zummi Gummi]

This is all part of the Chinese takeover plot.

 

[CTXRover]

It's on the Disney Parks Blog, so must be true:
http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/07/disneys-espn-the-weekend-update/

Lot's of PR mumbo jumbo about how ESPN is all over WDW now so no need to continue the event. While true that ESPN has a bigger presence than it even has at WDW before, it was still a nice event to have at DHS. I probably won't miss it either way though.

 

[wm49rs]

Sounds like Lou is sending up a trial balloon on behalf of WDW.....

 

[asianway]

Gotta love the after 5 on a Friday timing of the announcement.

 

[wdwmagic]

http://www.wdwmagic.com/Events/ESPN...the-discontinuation-of-'ESPN-The-Weekend'.htm

A real shame. It was a great event that seemed to be well supported by both the athletes and guests.

 

[StageFrenzy]

Now if they throw a huge event at Wide World of Sports and have some trickle to the parks i won't be too disappointed. But they are probably not going to do anything interesting to replace it.

 

[MegaPowersPT]

TERRIBLE news!

 

[PrincessASquare]

Bummer. We really enjoyed this event.

 

[devoy1701]

My first reaction was of course

My second thought was....imagine the timing of this anouncement

I understand what they are looooking to accomplish, but have no idea how they're going to pull it off. The "special event" status of this event was how they were able to get celebrities and sports stars to attend...and that is why people came to this event. Not sure how they're going to bring in a draw to WWoS besides actual sports events and tournaments. :shrug:

 

[828tnt]

not too thrilled about this..... wonder why they're stopping it?

 

[828tnt]

Gotta love the after 5 on a Friday timing of the announcement.

My first reaction was of course

My second thought was....imagine the timing of this anouncementI understand what they are looooking to accomplish, but have no idea how they're going to pull it off. The "special event" status of this event was how they were able to get celebrities and sports stars to attend...and that is why people came to this event. Not sure how they're going to bring in a draw to WWoS besides actual sports events and tournaments. :shrug:

becomming a trend recently. the "no monorail during extra magic hours" announcement was very similar.... i guess they can say there was less complaining this way.

 

[Zummi Gummi]

becomming a trend recently. the "no monorail during extra magic hours" announcement was very similar.... i guess they can say there was less complaining this way.

Happens everywhere, especially in politics. It's often referred to as "Take out the trash day."

 

[Jakester]

It was a nice little annual event i guess, but never made any special trip to see it. This usually meant it would be more crowded

 

[MKCP 1985]

I suppose those ESPN the Weekend 5K race medals will join the Tower of Terror 13K and Race for the Taste 10K medals in the retired race archives.

 

[Crush Dude!]

More Cutbacks tgat take away from the Unique experiences once available at WDW :fork:

 

[El Grupo]

Never attended, but it sounded like a nice event. I guess Disney determined that the costs were not worth the benefits. All about ROI.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

More Cutbacks tgat take away from the Unique experiences once available at WDW :fork:

Agreed. This specific change doesn't affect me, but there are people who gained joy from this event and will no longer have this annual event to make their WDW trip extra special.

And that's just the way things will go. These cutbacks might seem small, or you might not care if it's not something important to you, but eventually something will change that impacts your personal experience in a noticeable way. For some, it's the broken yeti. For others, it could be this. Then there's the Lights of Winter. For me, it's the MK monorail EMH fiasco and the impending loss of GF's beach. Individually, each change certainly doesn't affect a large proportion of people, which makes it even easier for Disney to do.

 

[gators11]

No ESPN? Construction?

Maybe because there is such much construction going to happen at DHS, that it would be to much to have the ESPN weekend?:shrug: One can hope right?

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

I'm really disappointed about this news. I just posted this comment on the Disney Parks Blog, but I'm guessing it will be edited, if approved at all:

This is very disappointing news. Besides watching ESPN shows filmed live at the Studios, it was so much fun to watch star athletes grinning like kids enjoying themselves in the parks. With the low-stress, spring training time of year (post-Super Bowl), athletes were approachable and excited to be there.

I can’t see how this gives any benefit to guests…taking away unique opportunities to interact with their favorite stars in the vacation destination of the world. Particularly since it’s being replaced with events that cater to more student athletes (and isn’t being replaced with a similar event). Just because the new events have ESPN’s name attached to them doesn’t make this an “evolution.”

PR 101 – t__________g away a story with no positive spin by releasing it late on a Friday afternoon, so that it will (hopefully) be forgotten by Monday…

They know this is all negative, hence the poorly-written blog (spit it out, Darrell!), being posted at 5:33 on a Friday. Just a big "ugh" from me. It wasn't an event for everyone, but it was really cool to my family of sports fans (although I was only able to watch from home, and was never able to attend....I was planning on going this year for the first time ).