DHS "Earffel Tower" gone after 27 years.

[Disneyliscious]

I didn't realize taking down the water tower was part of the restructuring plan. Just saw photos on Twitter of the before and after with it now gone. Apparently it was taken down a few days ago. It was such a landmark of that park. Although I stopped visiting DHS years ago, I'm still sad to learn of its removal.

An article also said the park will be renamed. This will be its 4th name. Why can't Disney get it right on this park?

 

[zaccaglin]

Yes the tower was removed, and covered on various threads. This will also be the parks third name. Only reason why the MGM name was dropped was because MGM dropped out. The park is changing because it wasn't pheasable to try and keep a complete studio in FL and run a guest are beside it when you already have a guest free area built up in CA. more and more guest are coming, they want things to do, and no longer want walking or al day team tours.

 

[Disneyliscious]

This will also be the parks third name.

I had to do some research on this because I could have sworn there had been 3 names already.

Copied from Wiki:

In 1985, Disney and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer entered into a licensing contract that gave Disney worldwide rights to use the MGM name and logo for what would become Disney-MGM Studios, which included working production facilities for movies and television shows and a satellite animation studio, which began operation prior to the park's debut. In 1988, MGM/UA responded by filing a lawsuit that claimed Disney violated the agreement by operating a working movie and television studio at the resort. On May 1, 1989, the theme park opened adjacent to the production facilities, with MGM's only affiliation being the original licensing agreement that allowed Disney to use MGM's name and lion logo in marketing, and separate contracts that allowed specific MGM content to be used in The Great Movie Ride. When the park first opened, the only two attractions were the Studio Backlot Tour and The Great Movie Ride.

Disney later filed a countersuit, claiming that MGM/UA and MGM Grand, Inc. had conspired to violate Disney's worldwide rights to the MGM name in the theme park business and that MGM/UA would harm Disney's reputation by building its own theme park at the MGM Grand hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. On October 23, 1992, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Curtis B. Rappe ruled that Disney had the right to continue using the Disney-MGM Studios name on film product produced at the Florida facility, and that MGM Grand had the right to build a Las Vegas theme park using the MGM name and logo as long as it did not share the same studio backlot theme as Disney's property.[9] The 33-acre (130,000 m2) MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park opened in 1993 at the Las Vegas site and closed permanently in 2000.

Disney was contractually prohibited from using the Disney-MGM Studios name in certain marketing contexts; in those instances, the park was called The Disney Studios.

On August 9, 2007, Walt Disney World President Meg Crofton announced that Disney-MGM Studios would be re-branded as Disney's Hollywood Studios, effective January 7, 2008.[10][11] On March 12, 2015, during an annual shareholders meeting, CEO Bob Iger hinted at another possible name change for the park coming in the near future
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So it appears that the park has technically been renamed twice, though it has went by 3 different names.

 

[Dreamport]

I was five when we first went down to MGM Studios and have loved the Earffel Tower ever since. Trying to spot it while on ToT became a game the past few trips while seeing it driving along the roads always made us smile. I'm not going to hold out hope they removed it nicely to put anywhere else and refuse to look up those photos (I teared up seeing the Catastrophe Canyon ones). Must be my punishment for happy dancing when the Hat came down.

 

[perkinsrose]

Where is an article about potential new (third) name?