I was late to the party and wasn't aware that it was ever in the $1.2B range. My number was the highest of anything I've seen until now so it hadn't occurred to me that they cut DOWN to $800M.
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Spirited News, Observations & Thoughts Tres
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baymenxpac
Well-Known Member
bubbles1812
Well-Known Member
A project like that which you used as an example would most likely cost at least a billion. I just googled because was curious to see what the costs of large convention centers cost and one of the first things that came up was a convention center complex that cost 870 million to build. The numbers are hard to believe maybe, but the costs people are throwing around aren't actually that unreasonable.
I actually use the example of guardrail... We don't think much about it but it's a necessary protective thing (the presence of a guardrail saved my life in a few months ago actually. Anyways...) In a city near where I go to school, there was a nasty stretch of road where there were 12 accidents or so in a year. They decided to put guardrail down there and the project cost of $21,000 in all. Now can you guess how much road the guardrail covered? ... 362 feet. That isn't even a tenth of a mile and it cost over 21 grand. Pretty crazy eh?
the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
Speaking of spending.
http://micechat.com/30626-disneyland-resort-6/
http://micechat.com/30626-disneyland-resort-6/
Lee
Adventurer
That $1.2b figure was never really going to happen at DAK.
Perhaps if you add in the DHS improvements....maybe you get that high.
Of course it is Disney, home of the theme park equivalent to the $100 hammer...
Lee
Adventurer
Great read. Dude knows his stuff.
bubbles1812
Well-Known Member
Very much agreed. I think he sums up the problem with WDI really well. Now don't get me wrong, I do like a lot of the stuff WDI has put out there over the years, but I also think about how much money could be saved with the same results still gotten if WDI actually had competition. Spending $1000 on a stupid sign that is used 3 months out of the year when the $10 one would have sufficed just fine shows how mismanaged the finances can be. I'm all for theme but there has to be a limit. I think about HP 1.0 and how much bang for their buck Uni got, and then I wonder how much it would have cost had WDI gotten their mits on it. Simply because they can't let that "$1000 sign" go, ultimately something bigger would have been sacrificed no doubt. It is a "can't see the forest through the trees" approach. I think WDI would be a much healthier place if they had to deal with a bit of competition.
the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
From the link:
"No theme park in the world (not even Tokyo Disneyland) can spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year on new attractions. The depreciation on the income statement would bury the Resort."
I seem to remember a lengthy debate/fight/whatever on some recent thread about just this thing and UNI. Does this help decide a winner of that one? I actually can't remember which thread or who was on what side, but this seemed to be the heart of the dispute.
Darth Sidious
Authentically Disney Distinctly Chinese
Autodesk... So they are still in initial stages? That could be for simple elevation blue printing.
Darth Sidious
Authentically Disney Distinctly Chinese
You can't do that on every park on a yearly basis but you could spend hundreds of millions a year on a macro level for the entire segment. It also depends on how much of an attendance/merch sales bump you get with each investment. When P&R profits billions a year, putting significant CAPEX isn't much of an issue. The issue is more so if you spent let's say $400M yearly on all your parks at the same time for many many years.
flynnibus
Premium Member
Same concern about the balance sheet.. but entirely different scenarios. The context of the blog post was that you can't keep spending money year over year. Depreciation is simply the practice of spreading that spend out in accounting terms. The point of the blog post was essentially that spending over and over and over.. stacks up and even the small numbers become too big to ignore. The comment is the same regardless of depreciation... the big capital spending would be too dominating on the balance sheet. Depreciation just lets you spread that spend out.
The other thread was inferring that an attraction that fails too soon is a 'bomb' where instead of writing say.. 10mil off year over year and being an insignificant number.. they would have to write off a ton at once.
One has to keep perspective through all of this... this is only about how the books look and for tax purposes. It doesn't change the actual money and when it was spent.. it simply impacts when you 'report' that spend.
bubbles1812
Well-Known Member
I don't think so. As what jmc said... Feel like the author was more suggesting you can't do that every year for many years. I don't think anyone would expect Uni or Disney to do that. That is plain crazy. But investment needs to happen on a large scale at times and Uni is doing a good job of it.
flynnibus
Premium Member
I think many fans do... this is the same audience that cries every attraction should be an Everest.. or why has it been 5 years since we got a new major attraction, etc. The author's point about filling in with the B and Cs is what most irrational fans need to see and read over and over
Figments Friend
Well-Known Member
You know.....i wonder how many Ex-Imagineers prowl this Forum alone....
( looks around )
There's some kind of add-on or unique platform that Lightstorm pioneered when making the film. Maybe it's not Autodesk. I Googled it a few days ago and all I remember is it's the unique system they used for Avatar and WDI bought a bunch of licenses. The name escapes me.
articos
Well-Known Member
It's Autodesk, along with a bunch of proprietary CG software from various other vendors and Weta Digital.
the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
Speaking of Weta, any update on the situation at ILM?
disney fan 13
Well-Known Member
Tell DCA that... Cause thats basically what UNI is doing with their parks.
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