New ideas about how to increase revenues are constanly bubbling up inside WDW. They are, for the forseeable future, the cash maching for the entire company and have been given very stiff guidelines.
The idea of the "Economy" resort is still, as far as anyone can see, still an idea. The major cost for any hotel is labor - the proposal would remove most of the services that even the "Value" offer: baggage service, food service, groundskeeping, merchandise, transportation (probably) etc. It would essentially be a Motel 6, you get a room and nothing else. If you wanted anything as a guest, you'd be directed to the strip mall next door.
The idea, much like the concept behind the "Values", was to attract people staying off property and make them "Disney Guests". The big problem, however, was the Values basically serve as a way for frequent Disney guests to downsize their accomidations.
That is an evil that Disney will not stand.
It's also why the second half of Pop Century hasn't been built. It's not that people were flooding in from International Drive to stare at a the "Do The Funky Chicken" sign - it was that all you people how used to book at the Caribbean Beach or the Wilderness Lodge decided you could save lots of money.
Until Disney can figure out a way to keep all you people from spending less, it's likely the Pop Century and the 'EconoLogde' will remain just a rumor.
