Disney in Texas?

[WDWHound]

Yes, Disney has been raising prices, but it didn't result in an attendance drop until the last 2 years, and when it did, the loss of attendance and profits was impressive. Your theory on pricing sounds good on paper, but it doesn't tend to work that way in reality. In most profit curves, there exists a price point beyond which the loss of customers is much too great to be compensated for by the higher price. The drop off on the curve tends to be very steep. Its very hard to find a point where raising prices provides the same level of profits once the high price triggers a drop off in customers. The drop off in customers is almost always too large to be overcome by the higher price, thus profits decline. You might a have a little wiggle room near the top of the curve, but not much.

The reason Disney was raising prices is that they beleived they could do so without a drop in attendance (notice they continue to build more hotels at WDW, not the action I would expect from a company looking for less tourists). They obviously didn't feel they had reached the price point where attendance would drop off, and, up until the last 2 years, they were right. However, with the soft economy of the last couple of years, the price point moved slightly lower and, becuase they didn't lower their prices to match it, they had a sudden loss of profits due to dramatically lower attendance. It took them a while to understand what was happening (some will argue they still don't really get it), but they recently offered some great discounts in order to improve attendance, and thus drive up profits.

As for whether the park needs to be open year round, this has always been a prerequisit for Disney in the past. Disney parks are very expensive to build. It takes to long to get a decent return on investment if the park can only be open 6 months out of the year.

 

[Testtrack321]

Disney realized that regional park idea was a failure. Their whole idea was bascially a glorified mall with some rides, not much else. After the opening of DCA and AK, they saw that the resorts had hit saturation point and any new parks in the US would hurt attendence.

 

[Cindymere]

I still tend to agree with TT321-- I dont' think Disney will ever build another theme park in the USA in our lifetimes....

 

[randytenn]

When I went to college outside of Branson, MO, the consistant rumor was that Disney owned a lot of land around Branson, for a 3rd park complex. It was a bunch of hooey!

Walt Disney did consider a park in St. Louis, but abandoned it for Orlando, after a spat with August Busch.

And, don't believe too many people who tell you they talked with someone who was scouting for Disney. I was recently in New Orleans, on Bourbon Street, and was being annoyed by an overly friendly bar patron, who was asking too many personal questions and wouldn't leave me alone. I convinced him that I was from Disney, and that we were looking to buy a city block of the quarter to put in a Disney themed resort. Sure, it was evil, but the guy was really annoying.

 

[sheriff_john]

As a long time Houstonian I am saddened that our beloved Astrodome is headed for mothballs because of new baseball and Football stadiums.

I have a dream Disney would take the worlds first domed stadium and make it a Disney Attraction. A huge disney quest with room for stage shows and several rides on the floor of the dome.

Best of all would be the Giant Mouse Ears added to the houston skyline as the top of the astrodome becomes the worlds largest Mickeymouse hat.

 

[Goofmeister]

I love the idea of Disney in Texas, especially if you could start a cruise there, stop at WDW, and then cruise on back. Not only would they get theme park $$ but also the travel bucks.

 

[Kirby]

Maybe Disney should buy out Six Flags and revamp them all. Six Flags Arlington was very Disneyesque back in the 60's. I remember, I was there.