Why Do Some Attractions Need Sponsors?

S

Scott M

New Member
Original Poster
I posed this question on another thread, but I thought it more fitting here: Why do some attractions need sponsors?

I've read that The Wonders of Life can not be opened full time due to lack of a sponsor. I don't know how true that is, but it gets me thinking.

Do all WDW attractions have, and need, sponsors in order to operate? Of those that do not have sponsors, how can they operate while others, like The Wonders of Life, need them?

Just curious, Scott.
 
BwanaBob

BwanaBob

Well-Known Member
Not all attractions need sponsors. (actually, none of the attractions need sponsers, but it helps.)

Think of owning a business. You're small. You need to invest in some capital to get the ball rolling. What are your options?

Use someone else's money, right? It is a lot like selling shares of stock... major difference though is the sponsor is paying for a 'billboard' vs. an actual interest generating investment. The plan of the sponsor is that enough people will pass through the attraction and see the business name (then possibly buy from them) vs. traditional advertising.

Disney uses someone else's money to keep the attraction 'fresh'... people keep going on attraction.... sponser makes money off of the 'advertising'... the wheel keeps spinning round and round.

Of course this all depends on what Disney feels is proper monetary compensation for sponsoring an attraction.

Hope this helps.
 
mousermerf

mousermerf

Account Suspended
Epcot does not need all of its pavilions. It has expandable capacity in the form of SEVERAL unused areas - Odyssey, Innoventions South-West, World Showplace, etc.

People do X-number of attractions/shows per day. That's true - Disney did the in depth research. From that, ride/shows begin to get ranked by popularity. Eventually - if you exceed your "needed" number of attraction to people ratio (this is determined by how people respond to wait times, a ride like Test Track is a big draw but cannot accomodate everyone who wants to ride it each day - so another ride is built to take overflow, Soarin for example), then you have attractions that aren't usefully operating.

Body Wars is the anchor of Wonders. It got so few people per day its existence was far from justified. It even has the ability to change capacity and CM's by opening or closing which probes are flying each day - and even at 1 probe and the minimum 2 CMs working (yes, they even abandoned the Greeter), which has a capacity of only 40 people every 6 minutes, they could not generate a line (a measure of interest) and even operated without riders for several hours total a day.
 
Magic Maker

Magic Maker

New Member
mousermerf said:
Epcot does not need all of its pavilions. It has expandable capacity in the form of SEVERAL unused areas - Odyssey, Innoventions South-West, World Showplace, etc.

People do X-number of attractions/shows per day. That's true - Disney did the in depth research. From that, ride/shows begin to get ranked by popularity. Eventually - if you exceed your "needed" number of attraction to people ratio (this is determined by how people respond to wait times, a ride like Test Track is a big draw but cannot accomodate everyone who wants to ride it each day - so another ride is built to take overflow, Soarin for example), then you have attractions that aren't usefully operating.

Body Wars is the anchor of Wonders. It got so few people per day its existence was far from justified. It even has the ability to change capacity and CM's by opening or closing which probes are flying each day - and even at 1 probe and the minimum 2 CMs working (yes, they even abandoned the Greeter), which has a capacity of only 40 people every 6 minutes, they could not generate a line (a measure of interest) and even operated without riders for several hours total a day.
Click to expand...


AND THAT my dear is why I love folks like yourself. You understand that the theme park business is actually complicated, not in a bad way. It is both an art and a science.
 
Yoop33

Yoop33

New Member
mousermerf said:
Body Wars is the anchor of Wonders. It got so few people per day its existence was far from justified. It even has the ability to change capacity and CM's by opening or closing which probes are flying each day - and even at 1 probe and the minimum 2 CMs working (yes, they even abandoned the Greeter), which has a capacity of only 40 people every 6 minutes, they could not generate a line (a measure of interest) and even operated without riders for several hours total a day.
Click to expand...

I am guessing this is why they have seasons for some attractions like the "Time Keeper"?
I always wondered why this would be closed when I was there. I don't know why I never figured it out before.
 
FatBoy976

FatBoy976

New Member
The idea of sponsoring attractions is not new either. Walt Disney himself was very into getting others to pay for him to be able to create whatever he wanted. I'm pretty sure all the attractions he did at the World's Fair were sponsored. If you listen to some of the really old recordings from the original CoP, they drop General Electric's name a number of times in the dialogue. Also, I think Bank of America has been sponsoring Small World since its inception.

I look at it the same way Disney does. If someone wants to pay to put their company name on my car, I'll make sure my car is always sparkling and in top running condition.
 
Yoop33

Yoop33

New Member
FatBoy976 said:
I look at it the same way Disney does. If someone wants to pay to put their company name on my car, I'll make sure my car is always sparkling and in top running condition.
Click to expand...

Umm well my cars say FORD on them and I don't always keep them the cleanest.
 
PixyDust

PixyDust

Member
FatBoy976 said:
The idea of sponsoring attractions is not new either. Walt Disney himself was very into getting others to pay for him to be able to create whatever he wanted. I'm pretty sure all the attractions he did at the World's Fair were sponsored. If you listen to some of the really old recordings from the original CoP, they drop General Electric's name a number of times in the dialogue. Also, I think Bank of America has been sponsoring Small World since its inception.

I look at it the same way Disney does. If someone wants to pay to put their company name on my car, I'll make sure my car is always sparkling and in top running condition.
Click to expand...

I thought Mattel was the Small World sponsor.
 
unkadug

unkadug

Follower of "Saget"The Cult
The Worlds Fair has always been a sponsor driven organization. Having pavilions sponsored by different nations and having multimedia presentations sponsored by major corporations.

See any similarity here?
 
DizWhizKid

DizWhizKid

New Member
I think it helps Epcot, especially, to have sponsors for its attractions. It helps keep the "Future" in Future World. While other parks can have most of their attractions go a long time without a major rennovation, if an Epcot attraction goes a while, it starts to look very dated. Example: Spaceship Earth, though my home attraction and one of my favorite rides in Epcot, is in major need of changing the end of the attraction ("oh wow!! people can talk to other people using computers!!!"). Hopefully Siemens' money will allow them to do that.

On a side note, I believe Pepsi-Cola/Unicef was the original sponsor of Small World. Kinda funny to think that now Coke has a stranglehold on Disney Parks.
 
ogryn

ogryn

Well-Known Member
Corrus said:
and most of all... I don't like the signs...

Sponsored by: CORRUS


Nah... forget it !!! :D
Click to expand...

Close enough.... :D
<img src="http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y251/ogryn/sponsoredbycorus.jpg"/>
 

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