My worries are that they will insist on a instant ROI rather than just seeing what happens. Merchandise wise? I dont see a sucessful market in they crap to go on the magic bands BUT the real money will in the behind the scene analytics.
They're going to be playing real-world rollercoaster tycoon and seeing exactly what a crowd does in a theme park using actual data rather than surveys and people counters. They will know exactly who did what and when, how big was their group, etc. All sorts of data to help streamline labor hours and mazimize profits..... which I'll accept as long as its anonymous. Thats where I think the costs will be a benefit, but not enough for $1-2B to be recouped in under 10 years. Lets say its $2B. Then we need to somehow have MM+ save $200M a year in labor costs just to break even over 10 years, not even including operational costs or its own labor. Even $1B would be $100M over 10 and thats still unheard of.
(That being said, if we had dropped $1B on a Star Wars makeover of DHS, i think you can increase revenues there to make it back within 3-5 years..... but what do I know?)
What I fear? That data of what I do, how I shop, where I eat being turned into targeted advertising and marketing. I fear that data being sold. Disney has been insanely less that transparent about the behind the scenes part of this. Selling people's personal information in an effort to recoup that $1-2B in a faster timeframe.
Selling the magic band merch might break even. Might. It certainly wont put a dent in the negatives in the balance sheet.
IMO of course.
